Can’t believe the Catholic Church is covering up the truth about Pope Joan The Pope Who Was A Motorcycle.
Also as hard as it is to give this game much credit I sort of like Makoto’s presentation as being the smart one who’s supposed to be a leader and an example being stuck and unable to help people, derided as useless, until she finally snaps under the strain.
Except she snaps for like two seconds because all our party members snap for two seconds and suddenly they’re back to normal again.
: I had the site eat my update… what is this, five times now?
: We have a seat on the train, so we get a free reading period. Today, we’ll be reading The Craft of Cinema. I’m not entirely sure why the guide starts The Gallant Rogue and then never finishes it. I actually looked, and there’s nothing that boosts the point you get from reading books, so it’s not like we’re waiting for that.
: In the span of one train ride, Morgana has gone from “Donnie Darko makes no sense” to “Donnie Darko is the peak of human achievement in cinema” and then back to “Donnie Darko makes no sense”.
: I was also wrong when I said that Craft of Cinema doubles stat gains from movies and DVDs. What it actually does is add a flat two extra points, so DVDs are now worth five points per session and movies at the theater are worth seven.
: "Speaking of rain, did you know the teru teru bozu was originally female? According to one theory, it came from a Chinese paper doll of a girl - the ‘Sao Ching Niang.’ "
: Teru Teru Bozu are little ghost-like dolls that kids hang up outside to wish for good weather. It seems like the association of the male gender is something that weakened over time, because when I image searched for them I found plenty that looked like girls, or cats, or in some cases catgirls.
: On a side note, you can apparently hang them upside-down to wish for rain, and now I’m just picturing Morgana making a catgirl one and hanging it upside-down in an attempt to call down an apocalyptic rain of catgirls.
: “When it came to Japan, it looked like a monk praying for sunny weather, and became male. In the history of the world, it’s not uncommon to twist people’s genders for politics or religion. Now then, Kurusu-kun, please look at this picture.”
: Here, we get an early look at Makoto’s tarot card. We can’t start her confidant until after Kaneshiro’s palace.
: Of course we know, she’s a motorcycle.
: “That’s correct. Pope Joan was a significant figure from the medieval ages. You’re quite the history buff. Joan - or Johanna as some historians argue - was the pope of Rome, even though women couldn’t be priests.”
: “As such, she was a legendary figure, sometimes thought of as an anti-church symbol. According to the legends, Joan was a cross-dressing girl brought from Athens to Rome.”
: “Praised throughout the city for her wisdom, she was chosen by the people as pope. However, when it was discovered that she was a woman, she was stoned to death.”
: “This incident was regarded a taboo by the church. As a result, Joan was stricken from the history books.”
: It’s time to see Yusuke’s new painting.
: In public, he calls it “Shadow the Hedgehog Performing a Spindash”. In private though, I think we all know he calls it “My Boyfriend’s Colors”.
: “I would like your honest opinion… if you would.”
: “…Hmph, as it should be. I do not paint for the sake of others’ comprehension. Regardless, this is how I choose to interpret the idea of ‘desire’. It is a foul charm held deep within the abyss of the heart.”
: Joker looks at him with an eyebrow raised and goes “Really? That’s what you think of when you think of desire? That, and nothing else?” and Yusuke starts sweating profusely.
: “To be honest, I believe my ability to capture desire so elegantly is all due to our Mementos foray. I have grown to understand the intricacies of the heart in a way I had once thought impossible…”
: “Akira, I intend on submitting this piece to an upcoming public art exhibition. Nobody has seen the abyss of the heart in such a raw manner before… the discourse will be fascinating.”
: “More importantly, it shall be the spark that revitalizes my slumbering career!”
: “Indeed. I expect you to accompany me for the moment it is finally revealed to the general public. Hm, I’m sure this will be a most sensational experience for those who choose to undergo it.”
: “A raw, unbridled look into the depths of the human psyche… and I was the one who was able to bring it to life, all thanks to your assistance. You have my sincerest gratitude.”
: “Hm… I deeply anticipate the public reaction at the exhibition. But for now, I should be going. My apologies for disturbing you.”
: “I was even able to come up with a new interpretation, thanks to your help. I’m on a roll right now. I shall keep up this momentum and apply it to the Phantom Thieves as well!”
: “No, I can guide us to even further greatness! Hah… your very presence amplifies my ambition. What a strange fellow you are.”
: There was a Persona 5 thread on /v/ (4chan’s videogame board) a few days ago that I saw where someone went “Yusuke was maybe a nudge from being a full-on gay romance route” and I’m like “Wow, even they can see it.”
: “I can hardly wait to hear back about the public exhibition, so I can share the joy with you. I will contact you again later. Expect good news!”
: Joker, professional IM troll.
: “That article… do you think the reporter we met at Crossroads could have written it?”
: “Just as I thought. The author is listed as Ichiko Ohya. …I see. This article might end up being useful for us.”
: “If the Palace ruler sees it and his cognition of the Phantom Thieves changes… hey, Akira. We’d be missing out if we didn’t use this to our advantage.”
: “If we have her paint us in a positive light, public opinion of us will change for the better! You should go try and get her to write some more articles about the Phantom Thieves!”
: Before we do that, there’s a TV quiz we have to do for knowledge points.
: How would you even… you can’t even talk! You don’t even have hands!
: I think Morgana assumes he’s still in Innocent Sin, where he can get Ohya to spread a rumor that he can just kinda Strong Bad his way around objects.
: On the way there, we run into everyone’s least favorite offensive stereotype.
: Don’t worry, it’s perfectly okay for them to be horny for Akechi. He just turned 18 on June 2nd.
: “Hey, where’s my glass…? Didn’t I order a refill? How much did I drink today? What time is it? Ah, who cares. …Wait, I care.”
: “She’s so drunk that she hasn’t even noticed you’re here. If we have her write articles, it’ll have an effect on the Metaverse. We might be able to use her if we do it right. Should we try forming a deal with Ohya?”
: “Keep in mind that she’s drunk. Now, do a good job negotiating, okay?”
: “So… what’s up? Got anything new on the Phantom Thieves? Or maybe… you’re just falling in love with me, hm?”
: “For real? You came all this way just to tell me? Thank god… my publisher just assigned me to be the beat reporter for the Phantom Thieves. Man…this will reaaally help me out.”
: “Oh, don’t be such a killjoy. These kids nowadays know about things we adults don’t have access to. Besides, what’s most important is that I now have a reliable third-party source for my stories.”
: “So, what do you want from me this time? Information about someone? Cold hard cash?”
: What he needs is for her to spread a rumor that the grocery store in Yongen-Jaya has a Legendary Katana for sale.
: “Now I can take it easy… maybe I’ll take a little vacation, with all my free time.”
: “What do you want? Just tell me. Last time it was info on Kaneshiro, right? The office has been abuzz lately… I think it’s Kaneshiro related. Something’s fishy…”
: And then Lala pulls out a plate of spaghetti topped with kusaya.
: “…Support the Phantom Thieves? But I see what’s going on here. A hardcore Phantom Thieves fanboy, huh…?”
: “A vacation? Oh, I was just kidding. I’m conducting a private investigation during my off hours. No one at work knows about it.”
: “Hey, how 'bout we do this… you supply me with info on the Phantom Thieves… and I’ll write articles based on what you tell me about them. You know, the Phantom Thieves who you love oh-so-much.”
: Joker then spends the entire night trying to explain the John Persona / John Persona duality.
: “…All right then. It’s a deal. I can create a lot of positive PR for the Phantom Thieves, so be sure to give me some good scoops.”
: “Oh, don’t tell anyone about this, okay? I don’t want people to know my source is a high schooler. Okay, Lala-chaaan! Time to celebrate our agreement! Bring out my bottle! And two glasses, please…!”
: “C’mon! Please…? …Whoa, her silence is golden. Fine, fine FINE! I won’t make the high schooler drink! Ugh, I gotta use the bathroom…”
: I like to think that Joker hears alcohol and opens his jacket to reveal a “Be Gay, Do Crimes” shirt underneath, and then Lala opens her kimono to reveal a “Be Gay, No Crimes” shirt in response.
: One thing I’m not going to show to conserve space is that you get points to Charm when visiting Ohya in the same way you get Guts while visiting Dr. Femdom.
: “Lala-chaaaan!? Where’d you gooo? Hey! Lala-chaaaan! C’mon, where are you!?”
: I don’t know how it is that the game treats Lala so well but has offensive stereotypes at the same time.
: We get another cutscene with Ryuji where he tells us to go to the palace. We won’t be doing that just yet, because we need to break the game in half first.
: Instead, we’ll do a confidant event with Ann.
: “And you know what she did? Laughed! She couldn’t stop talking about how tough she thought Mika sounded. Honestly though… it was kinda refreshing. I’m not even mad anymore.”
: “I guess you really just need someone to laugh at you if you want to feel better.”
: “I mean, they always say laughter’s the best medicine, right? I’ve seen the truth of that saying firsthand… but anyway, even though I’m trying to strengthen my heart, Shiho’s the real strong one here.”
: “So I agreed without thinking much of it, but it ended up being… pretty overwhelming.”
: “Yeah… she was dripping with sweat, teeth clenched… she was clearly in a lot of pain. Apparently, she can’t even move her feet. She said it feels like her legs are filled with sand… but she dragged them along, legs swollen with blood…”
: You know what would’ve been interesting? If we’d actually gotten to see this instead of just having Ann tell us about it.
: “I wanted to just make her stop… by the time it was all over, she was in tears. It was really tough on her… she said she just wanted to give up.”
: The overuse of ellipses we saw in Persona 1 and 2 is really starting to make a comeback here, and not even to connect thoughts between dialog boxes.
: “And that’s why she asked me to come… to keep her motivated. The whole time she was complaining about things in ways she normally never would… but even with that… she finished her session…”
: “I…I don’t know why I’m crying… I didn’t have to go through that… is it because I’m weak?”
: “Then why… can’t I stop crying…? You know, even through all that pain, I thought Shiho was so cool… beautiful, even. Despite all her complaining… she still tried really hard.”
: “Strength is more than just not getting fazed… it’s the power to fight through adversity. So I was thinking, and um… what can I do to help Shiho?”
: “My strength…? …Yeah, I’ll do just that. I’m gonna give it my all! You know Akira, being with you really helps me see things clearly. What I should do, the true meaning of strength… well… thank you for that.”
: And now we have two people with Harisen Recovery.
: “Ugh, my nose is all runny… wh-what are you looking at me like that for? Pretty girls get runny noses too, you know!”
: “I feel better now that I got to talk to you about everything. I’m going to try my best to help Shiho out… in my own way. Maybe our relationship won’t ever be exactly the way it was before…”
: “But now that I saw her crying, I know I’ll find something I can do for her!”
: “Thanks! I can’t let her leave me behind. Watch me. One day, I’ll be cool and strong - just like Shiho!”
: We have another Kawakami event tonight, and this is the last one we’ll be doing before we go to the dungeon.
: “You listened to… my secret. I’ve been feeling more at ease since then.”
: I’ve never been able to tell anyone about it, so… I figured I should actually do some housekeeping today, to say thanks…"
: yawn “Sorry… I need to take a break…”
: “I’m so touched to hear that you care for my well-being, Master… ugh… I’m at my limit. Sooo exhausted…”
: Cough Cough “I’m beat… I can’t stop coughing…”
: “Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks…”
: “I mean, there’s nothing left for me to hide from you, so the truth comes out, you know? Now that I think about it… I’m glad you’re the one who found out about me being a maid.”
: “Are YOU going to be all right in this dusty room? And have you been eating well? You need to eat fresh vegetables, and none of that instant stuff.”
: Joker looks at her and goes “So wait, what do you mean by that? Horny? There’s no way eating ramen makes you-”
: And then the camera cuts to Morgana sitting atop a throne of noodles heating water on the portable stove.
: “I guess I should get more sleep. I feel all achy… Takase-kun’s guardians said they need more money, so… I had my boss give me more shifts. I had to beg him for them, but…”
: “Oh, it’s fine! Nothing you should worry about. I feel more at ease, now that I have someone who knows about what I’m going through. …I’m talking about you.”
: This ability is kinda meh, and if you were a trophy hunter in the original game could lock you out of getting the trophy for crafting every item.
: “Uh-oh, time’s up… cough cough I have to get to my next job, so I’m going to head out. Thank you for using our service…”
: “So I guess it’s a good thing I splurged at the doctor’s. I finally got some cough medicine that works.”
: “Hey, you gotta do some cleaning and ventilating on your own even when I’m gone, okay? If you neglect stuff like that, it makes you more likely to get sick.”
: “Who, me? I mean, I’m tired, but that’s nothing new… wait a minute, we’re supposed to be talking about you! Don’t change the subject.”
: “Oh, but if you do get sick, I’ll look after you aaanytime! So please don’t forget to request me! 
”
: “Urgh. I finally get rid of the cough, and now I get these headaches and shivers… times like these are why we invented energy drinks… I just gotta chug one and push through!”
: Today’s the day we begin the process of breaking the game in half.
: “That voice… hey! Wasn’t that Kawakami on the PA? There’s no way that announcement was real… it must have been the signal!”
: I’m not entirely sure how Ushimaru wouldn’t recognize Kawakami’s voice, but whatever.
: The guide has us read ABCs of Crafting, and I’m not entirely sure why. It might be a holdover from the base game’s 100% route.
: In the base game, you wanted this book because it doubles the bonus from Proficiency when determining how many items you can craft.
: What you could do is use this to mass-craft an item called Reserve Ammo, which is not in Royal. Reserve Ammo fully refilled the party’s ammo count, which could be used with this one confidant ability that allowed you to spend a certain percentage of the party’s ammo (something like 15% at max rank) to instantly knock every enemy in a fight down.
: That ability was HEAVILY nerfed in Royal - it now only works three times per day at max rank.
: “Tell everyone to meet at the hideout. Let’s discuss our next move.”
: “Nyahaha… curious, eh? Well, I’ve come up with a super cool idea. Lady Ann will surely swoon for me if I-”
: “Sorry for the wait. So, what’s up, Morgana?”
: “You were talking about… me?”
: “Now that we’ve all gained some experience in battle, I think it’d be good for us to work on our finishers.”
: Joker wants an acrobatic knife dance with Yusuke where they hug at the end.
: “Our finishers? Yeah, I guess if we’re going to keep fighting, we ought to do it with style.”
: “Right? Right!? So, I came up with just the idea… it’s maybe my best one yet! And we can definitely pull it off if you play a part in it, Lady Ann!”
: “Me? Well, okay - what do you need me to do?”
: What he had in mind is called a Showtime Attack. They’re special finishing moves that use a combination of two party members (only one has to actually be in the active party) to do what’s basically a cinematic takedown.
: Showtimes have a number of things that can trigger them, which include:
: There are eight Showtime attacks, and each one is time-gated. The wiki claims we should have the second one (between Ryuji and Makoto) but we don’t. Unfortunately, Joker does not get one with Yusuke - the only two he gets are with Kasumi and a second party member and both only unlock past where the base game ends.
: If you decide to look them up on your own, know that the Joker/Kasumi and Joker/??? ones are massive spoilers for the new content in Royal and will reveal what Kasumi’s entire deal is.
: Each Showtime attack has a name which is different between the US and Japanese versions, but I don’t think the name ever actually shows up in-game.
: This one is called “Gun With the Wind” in the US version, and “Phantom Suit and Machine Gun” in the Japanese version. The latter is a reference to an 80s Japanese action movie called “Sailor Suit and Machine Gun”.
: Personally, I call it “What if Ann was horny for Morgana?”
: KILL IT WITH FIRE
: Showtime attacks do a metric shitload of Almighty damage, based entirely on the level of the two characters participating.
: “Really?”
: “So, is that a no?”
: “Well, it’s not that I don’t want to… it’s more like, isn’t your idea sorta impossible? Even in the Metaverse?”
: I love that Joker has just been carrying that star in his pocket for what, a month?
: “Huh? What was that?”
: And here’s our third showtime attack, which is between Ryuji and Yusuke. Yusuke also has one with Ann.
: “Things would get interesting if my sister ever found out…”
: “There’s no time to be getting sentimental here.”
: “Yes, I understand. I do have one request about all of this though. Can you teach me how to be a phantom thief? Like… about the Metaverse, for example.”
: “Simply put, that world is formed of a person’s cognition. There, you can change people’s hearts.”
: “Yeah, I’ve gathered that much just from going there once. But the method of transportation still eludes me… I mean, it’s a smartphone navigation app…”
: “You only need a name, a location, and a distortion. After the first entry, the Palace is bookmarked.”
: “You really just make it sound like an ordinary app… aren’t there any dangers associated with it?”
: “Don’t worry 'bout that! We’ve already been a bunch of times and -”
: “That’s not what I mean. It’s a navigation app, right? Couldn’t someone easily access our history on the server?”
: I like that she’s worried about this, but not about the whole Phan-site thing.
: “I…”
: “Now she’s catchin’ me off guard too…”
: “And we don’t know where it came from, right? It showed up on my phone without any input from me… do you know anything about it, Akira-kun?”
: “What…?”
: “… I don’t fully understand, but I don’t think we have to worrya bout people accessing our data. From what I can tell, this app is incredibly special. It wasn’t made by any ordinary means.”
: “True… an app that allows you to enter another world isn’t exactly commonplace. Well, Sis doesn’t know who the Phantom Thieves are, so I suppose our information is safe for now.”
: “We’re still learning things ourselves. I hope your sharp wit can help us with that.”
: “Thank you. I’ll do my best.”
: This is what’s on Joker’s “Be Gay, Do Crimes” shirt. I mean, he’s even posing for it.
: Oh man, this picture. So this picture leaked in Japan I think before the base game even came out, and people were in a fucking UPROAR about it because they thought you had to save Makoto from an abusive relationship, but also that Joker wouldn’t be her first and only boyfriend.
: Our last pre-dungeon visit is to Dr. Femdom, so that we can start breaking the game.
: “Oh, are you going home already? If you have some time, why don’t you stay and enjoy an apple? It’s a gift from one of my elderly patients. She gave me a lot…”
: “…Chief Oyamada.”
: “He’s a part-time staffer. I’m having him handle some miscellaneous tasks for me. So, do you have some business with me?”
: “…Bronchitis, you say? Well, I had no intention of taking her from you. I certainly didn’t encourage her to visit my clinic.”
: “…You’re right.”
: “Heh… don’t worry about it.”
: “Don’t lie to me…! She should still have some time! She was slowly recovering… her condition couldn’t have deteriorated that quickly!”
: “No, no no… but she’s all I’ve been working toward, all this time… curing her was my only… there’s no way…”
: And now we know what her actual deal is. Can you guess what her Mementos request is?
: “…What have I been doing all this time? What was even the point…?”
: “…Yeah, you’re right. I feel better now… thanks for your help, my little guinea pig…”
: And there we have it. We have almost no reason to progress further with Dr. Femdom. This is all we need. Discount reduces the prices of everything in Tae’s shop by half.
: “Ugh. I wish I hadn’t shown you that side of me…”
: Joker just goes “I can never take your femdom seriously again.”
: “Hehe. You are? …Well, I suppose it’s fine. As long as it’s you. Go on home for today. We will continue this another time.”
: And now we’ve officially begun the process of breaking the game. SP Adhesive 3 restores 7 SP per turn, meaning that all of the single-target first tier spells are basically free to cast. From now on, everyone in the main party will be using one of these.
: I then head to Iwai’s and spend the rest of our money on guns and armor. I also got new melee weapons for everyone in order to boost damage on technicals.
: I didn’t get a shot of it during the first day (it’s kind of hard to get a shot of it without it being obscured by the menus) but Makoto uses revolvers as her gun of choice. They do a bit more damage than Joker’s pistols but have a lower ammo count and are less accurate.
: Finally, to round out the night, we have another generic non-rank-up event with Kawakami.
: Next time, we’ll go into Kaneshiro’s palace, cheese the game for loads of money, and try to level to 26 (not 29) to match the red shadows.
On the one hand I do love the old school manga style cut-in. On my other four mutant hands, I’ve got black market super soakers to hose Morgana down.
“No, Makoto’s an S”…is what someone, somehow didn’t say in response.
I think it’s because Lala is basically a Magical Negro / gypsy fortuneteller / etc.
Credit where it is due; this cutscene, like all the others, is extremely good. I also strongly love this design. She’s a Kamen Rider and it rules.
This might seem like a swerve but Gluttony isn’t necessarily about food. It is about excess. Greed is “you have something I want” and Gluttony is “I want more and more”, and he does seem to fit the latter; also purple is a colour associated with Gluttony, which would explain the face.
The thing here is less that his logic is flawed, and more that you learned to see above the noise. There can never be a moment in time where that specific cookie can be eaten again, to reveal it was just a regular cookie. You can have similar cookies, but you’ll never replicate that one. Meanwhile with Parasite Eve, you can easily go back and see it exactly as it was, but as a different, grown person. You can see how your initial experience with it influenced the seeming quality of it all.
LE DIABLE! The Devil himself! A card representing extraordinary efforts- often in the realms of violence and raw force. Typically considered a fairly evil card, in so far as these cards can be evil. It can also represent obsession with material things, a fitting friend when going against the Glutton. There isn’t really much to say about this one, it’s right up there with Tower as a “is that good?” card. If it shows up, expect some bad stuff.
Artwise, this is basically a perfect rendition of the Marsielle tarot Devil. Upper body of a human woman, lower half of a goat man, with branch like horns and tangled hair, with two fawn like demons in her binding. Standing, not sitting, for this Devil can see the fullness of things. There’s basically no changes for this to make it fit P5’s style, it just works as is!
What’s funny is that the two Devil Arcanas from the past two games are some of my favorites. They’re quite well written, and are pretty fun. I wonder if this media personality obsessed with getting the scoop, no matter what, will be a good Devil for us…
: This entire recording session was fucking cursed. First, the site ate my last update like five times. Then I got halfway through the dungeon and realized I permafucked. Now, I realized that on my re-recording run I forgot to open my screenshot tool.
: It’s Sunday, so the first thing we want to do, as usual, is grip and sip. What happened was that on my first recording run, I went to the dungeon and forgot to buy new equipment… and on the second run, I forgot to grip and sip.
: “You were all using code names, weren’t you?”
: “You’re quite perceptive.”
: “This time’s a hard one… maybe somethin’ like ‘Shoulder Pads’ ?”
: “Why in the world did you focus on that?”
: “I refuse to be called that.”
: “What about ‘Rider’?”
: “Sounds too much like a smuggler. Next.”
: “Fixer?”
: “I’m not a mastermind though. Next. Won’t you give me something better to work with?”
: Funny he says that, because we do get an Empress-arcana as a party member.
: “You got anything, Joker?”
: Unfortunately, I picked “Witch” on the recording where I forgot my screenshot tool. If you do, Yusuke agrees with you.
: “Do you want to be smacked?”
: “Guys, she’s clearly a ‘Queen’.”
: “That’s it!”
: “Queen… it has a nice ring to it. I like it. Let’s go with that. Now then, could you explain to me the strategy for this mission?”
: God dammit now she’s trying to be Donte from the shitty Ninja Theory “Devil May Cry” game.
: “…Strategy?”
: Makoto reminds me of this one lady at work who spearheaded a weekly “training program”. She sends out an email every Monday, including holidays, with a link to an online training course.
: Every week, without fail, the training course consists of a button that reads “PRESS THIS BUTTON FOR COURSE CREDIT” and nothing else.
: “Uhh… we pretty much look around the area, I provide navigation when needed, and then…”
: “If we run into Shadows, we beat the shit outta 'em!”
: “Very well then. I feel like I’ll be useful for sure. It seems my role is to be the brain of this team. I’ll analyze Mona’s information and give out orders. Any objections?”
: Joker gives Makoto a thumbs-down because of his highly complex relationship with Makoto’s brilliant military mind. Later, he has a breakdown because Makoto won’t authorize use of the Varia Suit to get through a lava pit.
: “N-None, Queen!”
: “I bet Skull’s definitely the type that’ll be under a girl’s thumb.”
: “Mona, will you begin navigating us?”
: “Y-Yes, Queen!”
: “Him too, it seems.”
: “Apparently we are acknowledged as customers who can be extorted.”
: “…That’s fine. We can take advantage of his negligence.”
: “Though I will say, it’s a little scary every time.”
: We actually have to examine the front door to proceed, even though we can clearly see it in the last shot.
: “It seems as though they didn’t want to leave that gaping hole…”
: “But… we can’t get in now…”
: “Sorry… I… think I might have taken it a little too far…”
: “C’mon, it’s not a big deal. Plus it was super cool, Queen!”
: “Th-thanks…”
: “The details are no longer important. Let us search for a new infiltration point, Joker.”
: “Wait. I can feel a draft coming from underneath the statue… doesn’t this seem strange to you, Joker?”
: “Why don’t we check it out?”
: “Let’s head inside… after we’re adequately prepared, of course.”
: The new entrance drops us off just to the right of the reception area, where we were last time.
: There’s a tutorial here for Showtime Attacks, which I already covered in the last update. Let’s just move on.
: The first area is now full of enemies, and they’re kind of annoying to sneak up on due to the long corridors of benches.
: In the original recording run, where I permafucked, we got a fight with the new Treasure Demon as our first encounter.
: The new Treasure Demon is weak to Psychic damage, so I just take advantage of that.
: The Queen’s Necklace was an actual piece of jewelry that was commissioned by Louis XV of France for a lover, but wasn’t finished before he died of smallpox.
: Ultimately, it got used by a con woman who convinced a high-ranking cardinal to buy it in the name of Marie Antoinette, and was one of the contributing factors to Marie Antoinette’s execution even though she never had anything to do with it.
: I say it was an actual piece of jewelry because what happened is that the con woman hired a lookalike to pretend to be Marie Antoinette in order to get the necklace from the cardinal, and then took it apart and sold the diamonds it was made of on the black market, so the necklace no longer exists.
: It was also the subject of an Arsene Lupin story.
: In the second fight, we run into a Nekomata and have Akechi’s ability proc. Thankfully, we have Ame no Uzume with Mazio and a passive that cuts the cost of Mazio from ten SP to five.
Yokai born from extraordinarily long-lived cats with various supernatural abilities. Sometimes portrayed with a split tail.
: Nekomata is basically just here to be fusion fuel, and not even particularly good fusion fuel at that. The one thing I find really amusing is that one of the criteria in mythology for a cat becoming a nekomata is “reaching a certain size” in which case I absolutely want to see a Garfield nekomata.
: We also get a Thieves Den thing for negotiations.
: With that room cleared, we can go down the hallway to unexplored territory. Just in case you’re wondering, you can’t go back into the room behind the counter - it’s blocked off.
: “Hm, but that elevator is lacking a control panel.”
: “They probably control it from a security room. It’s a simple, but effective measure of screening.”
: “That must mean they really don’t want anyone going down there…”
: High Pixie here is weak to both Nuclear and Gun. In the base game, there was a good reason to use Makoto here due to the whole “guns have limited ammo” bit. Here though? Not so much.
: I do grab one, but only out of habit. They’re Fool arcana and don’t really have any great skills… nor are they really a mythological figure so much as they were a palette-swap in the older games that just kind of persisted.
: I swear there’s like a million random encounters in this area. Anyway, we have an Orobas surrender to us.
Prince of Hell who gives conjurers perfect information about past, present, or future. Apparently incapable of lying. Can also bestow honors and protect from temptation by demons.
: Orobas is another kind of useless fusion fuel Persona. I suppose if you fused him and got Marakunda that might be worth it, but I’d rather have the single-target version, given that 24 SP is a very steep cost.
: Before we move on, there’s actually a treasure chest by the reception area with a Portable Battery in it, which gives you a higher chance of inflicting Shock. It’s garbage.
: The elevator is on our right, and as you can see on the map there’s a bunch of stuff on the left we haven’t explored.
: The left side just has a small office area with a couple treasure items, and this door, which leads to a chest.
: We need to go up those stairs.
: There’s a dog shadow here that is going to allow me to show off the greatest weapon in the John Persona arsenal.
: See how the text there is red? That’s Yoshida’s ability, which gets you a significantly larger amount of money when it activates.
: By the way, dog shadows will always be an Orthrus, which are a pain in the ass to negotiate with.
: We may have already gotten a full Shiki-Ouji’s worth of money from a random encounter… but that’s not enough. To take things over the top, we will need to employ the greatest weapon in the John Persona arsenal.
: Yoshida gives you a second ability that allows you to ask for money a second time… or actually, as many times as you want. What happens is that the demon either gives you more money (which will always be identical to the first amount they gave you) or they get pissed off and start fighting again, summoning more demons if they can.
: That’s three times.
: On the fourth, he gets angry… only Ann uses her ability to simply cancel his attack.
: He then summons a second High Pixie, which I kill before holding him up again. I initially thought that you got more money depending on how many enemies were on the field, but that’s not the case: I’ve gotten drops of 7,000 yen from a single enemy and half that from a big group.
: You’re starting to get the idea. Now, you might ask “If the demon summons other demons when you fail to get more money, can you do this in an endless loop since you now have regenerating SP?” and the answer is yes, yes you can.
: Unfortunately, this isn’t the best fight to do this in because of how weak the High Pixies are. If you leave them alive for a bit they’ll eventually heal the Orthrus, but the Orthrus has a couple of very high-damage attacks (including one that can potentially instakill) and I didn’t want to game over.
: Yes. Money will never be a problem again… at least, not until we finish Caroline and Justine’s confidant. Then it will be a problem.
: There’s a room off to the side here, but it’s locked. Instead…
: We want to climb up here.
: We get a mini-boss fight against four Orobas. The reason they’re not named is because this footage is from my third recording where I didn’t get any Personas and just ran through.
: Unfortunately, Yusuke only hits three of them, so Joker has to follow up with a regular Bufu.
: “This appears to be some kind of monitoring room. I hope we can find clues in here…”
: “I’d bet that’s where the Treasure is…”
: “Unless we can obtain another map, we won’t know for certain…”
: “It would probably make sense to head there first…”
: “Shall we go on that elevator we found earlier then?”
: “That should be our last resort. First, let’s see if there is anywhere to use this keycard.”
: Personally, I preferred Melty Donut Dough Again Frosting Code, the updated 2010 re-release.
: Naturally, we need the keycard to leave the room.
: To the left is a giant metal gate we can open from this side.
: It leads back to the start of the palace. The reason there’s so many shortcuts is because Kaneshiro’s palace only has something like four save rooms.
: Instead, let’s go back to that locked door we passed by.
: “Yeah, it has to be the one they’re controlling externally. So this is right above it…”
: “So what, this is the control room or something? What’s the point of comin’ here?”
: “Perceptive as usual, Joker. We should be able to ride on top of the elevator.”
: “I see. We sneak atop it, then wait for it to move on its own.”
: “It does sound like that plan will take us further down.”
: The way they set this up is kinda dumb, because instead of going with the “service hatch on top of the elevator” they go with, uh…
: A magic vent in the side of the wall that has no reason to be there and lines up perfectly with the top of the elevator. Makes sense.
: Instead, we come out atop a replica of the cathedral rafters from Dark Souls 1. There’s nothing special to them - you just jump down to the floor below.
: “Is that Kaneshiro…!?”
: “It looks like some rats have infested this place! Under no circumstances let them further down! Strengthen security as much as you can! Understood?”
: “It seems painfully obvious where the Treasure is now…”
: “But the map from earlier doesn’t show that much… I wonder if there’s another one somewhere.”
: “In any case, heading down should be the best move. Let’s keep our eyes out for a map while we explore!”
: There’s a save room here, which makes sense from a gameplay perspective but not really from a plot one. Unlike the other palaces we’ve been to, where they used the excuse of “it’s places where the palace owner doesn’t have total control”, Kaneshiro’s palace isn’t based on a real building the way Kaneshiro’s and Madarame’s were.
: Let’s just go down the other hallway.
: Cameras add 10% to the security level if they spot you. I believe they’ll also alert any shadows who are close enough.
: “Joker, can’t you use your observation skills to see the camera’s range? Make sure it doesn’t catch sight of us!”
: Wait, what’s that blue glowing thing?
: “The word ‘camera’ is written on it.”
: “Oh, this must be for the surveillance cameras! Let’s destroy it, Joker!”
: Most of the cameras in the palace can be turned off, and it’s usually mandatory to do so. I think you can skip one of the power boxes if you really want to, but it’s on the way to an objective anyway.
: At the end of the camera hallway, there’s a door. Let’s just open it.
: This is a new thing for Royal, where they outright tell you that Oni has no weaknesses and must be hit with a Technical to be knocked down.
: This is a nice addition actually, given that I got through the entire base game without even knowing technicals existed - I assumed that Oni was like the demons in the mainline SMT games who are from demon families that cannot be negotiated with and must be fused to use.
: So anyway, I went to the other LP to check if this was in the base game and I just somehow forgot about it, but it’s not. What I found is that the guy who did the LP of the base game was… not very good at it and I think that’s part of the reason he hates this game so much.
: Seriously, he grinded to level 26 (we’re at like, 23-24 at this point) before even going through the first room. Now, I will admit that the base game was slightly harder than Royal is… but the thing is, the demons in Kaneshiro’s Palace were barely touched. The only difference is that they added a single new demon (replacing a level 12 Angel) and changed Orobas’s weakness from Bless to Ice so that Yusuke wasn’t a liability here.
: Kaneshiro’s Palace is a step up difficulty-wise. The enemies hit hard and some of them can oneshot Joker or use extra press turns from hitting the party members to kill him before he can move. In fact, I game overed at two different points in this palace, but one of them was absolutely my fault.
: Oni has a skill called Rampage that does multiple physical hits at random, and can do a lot of damage to one person if you get bad RNG.
: There’s a staircase here, but it’s blocked off by a pair of security cameras that will trigger a barrier behind them if they’re set off. You can see the barrier in the background - it looks just like the one in Madarame’s palace.
: There’s another way we can go, and on that route we meet Black Ooze, another kind of generic demon that doesn’t really have a mythological background. Black Ooze was added to this dungeon’s enemy list in Royal.
: We also have Akechi’s ability kick in to let us know it’s weak to Electricity. Let me just post their stat thing, since I grabbed one as a Persona and promptly tossed it for something better.
: Black Ooze is here solely as a means to counter Oni, if for some reason you don’t have a Persona capable of using status effects and decided to remove all the status skills on your party members.
: If we go out the other exit from the room with the stairs, there’s a hallway with more security cameras in it. This one you can honestly bypass fairly easily - there’s a room off to the left of where I am here that shuts them off.
: The guard you could see in the last screenshot gives us our first Disaster Shadow in the form of Nekomata. High Pixie can also be a Disaster Shadow.
: It was here (on my first run) that I discovered how Disaster Shadows are actually meant to work. What happens is that they still drop an item even if you kill them in a way that does not give them a chance to explode - such as an All-Out that ends the fight.
: The idea is that if you knock all the enemies down and get an All-Out, the Disaster Shadow will explode on any enemies remaining for damage roughly equivalent to what the All-Out did to it, which is usually going to be a guaranteed kill.
: The Disaster Shadows here mostly drop Black items.
: The room at the end of the hall here has a power box that shuts off the staircase cameras, allowing us to proceed.
: There’s also a small side room near the switch that has a Black Rock in it. I remember having way more of these by the end of my base game run than I could ever possibly use.
: I also stop by the other camera switch on the way back. Not really much of a reason to at this point, but I figured I’d show it just in case.
: Here’s the top of the stairs from earlier.
: “According to the map, we should be able to head down from here…”
: “Hm? Everyone, quiet down! I hear someone talking!”
: “Hmm? Keys? What’re those Shadows talkin’ about?”
: “I wasn’t able to pick up everything they said. If only we could get closer…”
: “There are Shadows in there. It’s probably too dangerous to get any closer right now…”
: “I’m curious about the conversation they were having, but there’s nothing we can do about it at the moment. For now, let’s just focus on finding a way down.”
: There’s also a locked chest near the switch we just broke.
: It’s got a good mace for Ryuji, but we’re not using him.
: This is down below where the cameras are.
: “According to the map, there’s a great deal more beyond here…”
: “Then this is not a vault, but a partition of sorts. The terminals there must be how you open it.”
: “B-But both of them have keyholes.”
: “Meaning we’ll need two keys to get beyond this area…”
: “For real? Ugh… it’s such a pain in the ass how secure this place is.”
: “It would seem that’s correct. This may lead further down, just as Kaneshiro had mentioned.”
: “Hey, perhaps the key that those Shadows were talking about goes here.”
: “Hmm, that sounds likely to me… all right! Let’s go back to that room!”
: “Hold up - don’t forget about them security cameras.”
: “Good point. They’re a pain, but we should deactivate the security cameras first.”
: We’re going to head right first, because…
: There’s a red shadow up here, so let’s take care of that first. From what I’ve noticed, red shadows are a lot less common than they were in Kamoshida or Madarame’s palaces.
: The red shadows are Take-Minakata, who is far less useful than Shiki-Ouji. He is the only enemy in this dungeon who truly got nerfed in Royal: in the base game, he was level 29 and had higher stats.
: I’m not entirely sure why they nerfed him - from what I remember, there weren’t all that many of him even in the base game’s version of Kaneshiro’s Palace.
: What’s also weird is that at level 29, Take-Minakata was five levels higher than the second-highest level enemy in the dungeon. Shiki-Ouji is six levels higher than the second-highest enemy in Madarame’s palace.
: Normally, he’s weak only to Psychic, but Ann managed to burn him. This is probably why you want Makoto if you have Ann, because burn opens the enemy up to both Nuclear and Wind.
: The reason I’m not doing as much damage is because this was my third recording and I didn’t bother to stop for new Personas. We’ll switch back to the save I used for my second (lost) recording soon.
: Just like Shiki-Ouji, Take-Minakata is a “tough guy” who won’t negotiate unless he is critically low on HP… not that there’s much of a point to doing that. Doing the Greatest Weapon in the John Persona Arsenal technique on groups of regular enemies is a much more efficient way to farm money.
: Take-Minakata does not fuck around. If he gets a lucky shock off, he can and will follow up with a technical on his next turn. This didn’t happen on my canon recording and I’ll explain why once we pass the vault door.
: Okay so, uh… does that mean the armor is sooty, or does it mean that only sooty men can wear it? Or was it made by sooty men and that’s why it’s called that? I have questions.
: There’s a locked door here you can open to make a shortcut back to the main room, useful in case you want to come back and pick up a Take-Minakata later. We probably will at some point - I’m doing that thing where I record like 3/4 of the dungeon and do the writing and then go back and finish it again.
: Oh, right. Kaneshiro doesn’t have an unused Will Seed cutscene the way Kamoshida and Madarame did. As far as I know, Atlus cut the idea after recording those two.
: I also didn’t know this, but Kaneshiro’s original Japanese voiceactor died right after the base game released. His name was Kazunari Tanaka and he died of an unspecified illness in October 2016. Atlus completely replaced all of his voice lines in Royal.
: This was one of two voiceactor deaths related to this game. Miyu Matsuki, who voices the fortune teller we met in Shinjuku, died in October 2015 of lymphoma. Her voicelines were also replaced in Royal.
: Honestly, I think Persona as a franchise has some horrible death curse associated with it.
: Before we leave, there’s a very sneaky chest up on a… I’m not even sure what you’d call it, it’s just kind of this platform that exists for no apparent reason.
: You can get to it by jumping up here and then jumping across and going through the tiny vent that also seems to serve no identifiable purpose.
: Having a source of psychic damage for knockdowns is nice, even if we only have three of them. They’re a good backup in case Joker gets stunned or silenced.
: The other side leads up some stairs to a hallway with a dog and some cameras.
: There’s another optional power room at the end.
: In addition to turning off the cameras in the hall we just ran through, it also turns off the cameras on the other side of the wall.
: There’s a card reader we can use to open a shortcut back to where the save room is. This is helpful for farming once you’ve cleared the dungeon out.
: The next three rooms are just kind of there to be there. You go into the first one, jump through a vent in the wall to the next one, and go down to the bottom.
: Like the other side, there’s a shortcut back to the main room.
: During the fight with the shadow in here, I got Maruki’s “Flow” ability to activate. This raises Joker’s attack by an insane amount - I was doing 300+ damage with single spells.
: We can open this door to go back to the main area.
: “Wait… you think they’re talkin’ about those two keys!?”
: “Hm, just as expected… those are highly likely to be what opens the partition.”
: “What’re we gonna do then? Beat 'em up and take the keys?”
: “Really, Skull? Just look at 'em. They’re not your average Shadows. Anyone in charge of such important keys must be extremely strong.”
: This is where the rumor thing from P2 should have made a comeback, and you could argue that they’re “really strong” or “probably not that strong” and the fight would change based on your choice.
: “And there’s two of them; dealing with both of them would be tough. Plus, they could go and sound the alarm…”
: Funny she says that, because we’ll actually wind up fighting both of those shadows (plus a third one) at the same time as a miniboss in the next area.
: “They don’t really look like they’re goin’ anywhere, though…”
: “…Then why don’t we split them up and beat them individually?”
: “And how will we do that?”
: By using the dumbest fucking idea that shouldn’t work.
: “Remember that monitoring room upstairs - the room we got the map in? There was some communication equipment there as well. We can use that to lure one away.”
: I didn’t want to pick the second one because on the canon run, I had two Personas that absolutely fucking devastated them.
: “I agree. It sounds a lot safer than fighting them both at the same time!”
: “Okay, let’s leave this part to our resident intellectual!”
: I don’t know why no one has suggested just, I dunno, shooting them through the door. Especially given that the door has holes big enough to fit a gun through.
: “Thanks! So, first we need to head to the monitoring room!”
: The game then offers to simply warp us right to the communications room. We’ve already picked up everything, so there’s no reason not to do it (especially given that it’ll warp us back here afterward).
: After playing SMT 1 I’m surprised they didn’t make you walk back to the communications room only every other floor tile is now a damage floor.
: Why the hell would this work? Why would they not just send both guys just to be sure?
: Wait a second… is this Loss?
: Meet Fuu-Ki. He’ll show up as a normal enemy later in the dungeon. We will definitely want him because he’s a Star arcana Persona, but also because his moveset is… surprisingly good.
: He hits pretty hard, but that’s only because I was too lazy to look up the weakness chart. He’s very weak to lightning.
: “Oooh, he had a key!”
: “Guess that went pretty well, huh?”
: “That means there should only be one Shadow in the security room! Let’s snatch the other key from it while we can!”
: The game offers to warp us right back there.
: Sui-Ki promptly gets his ass handed to him, even on this run.
: “Perfect, we’ve now obtained both keys!”
: “Oh, just one moment! Doesn’t this map have a little more information than our own?”
: “Maybe it can tell us what the bank is like further down.”
: “This map seems to indicate that the area beyond the partition is rather large as well…”
: We’re about halfway through the dungeon right now. The vault door is kind of a natural stopping point if you’re not going for 100%… but we are.
: “I’m sure security will keep getting more intense from here onward too. We need to be careful.”
: “On three! One, two…!”
: Something tells me that had Final Fantasy 7 Remake come out before this game, this would be a minigame.
: “This took some time, but we managed to force it open.”
: You would think this would be a confidant point thing, but it’s not.
: “Yes, I agree. The cooperation of our whole team is what helped us through this particular ordeal.”
: “So he took all of this from the weak…”
: “…He’s going to pay for this.”
: We’re in another two-staircase situation, but the one on the right is totally pointless, as indicated by the door being white instead of yellow. You can’t even unlock it - on my lost recording, I got on the other side.
: “Hm!? Wait, Joker! Hide!”
: Basically, you can just run right through these cameras without giving a single fuck provided that your security level is low enough since there’s no way to turn them off.
: “It might be a surveillance system that switches between multiple cameras for efficient coverage…”
: “That just means we gotta pass by when it’s not recordin’, yeah?”
: “That should work… but there are guards to watch out for too. We should proceed with caution!”
: For the most part, you can just jump between cover to avoid the cameras.
: The second half of the dungeon has new enemies, and one of those is Leanan Sidhe here. On my second run (which we’ll be catching up to in a bit) I fused one of these as soon as I got a Queen’s Necklace. Since we’re here, let’s talk a little about the Personas I fused on the canon run.
Irish fairies who seek out human lovers and give them inspiration, usually resulting in madness and/or death for the artist.
: By herself, Leanan Sidhe is pretty good: she’s got Psio and Marin Karin is actually pretty okay… though as far as I know it can fuck with the Greatest Weapon in the John Persona Arsenal because brainwashed enemies don’t trigger Yoshida’s abilities.
: Man, a Persona game where Marin Karin is actually useful. Never thought I’d see the day.
: The real reason I wanted Leanan Sidhe, though, is because we can fuse her with the Kodama we’ve had sitting around in the party (which, strangely enough, none of the fusion calculators list as a valid fusion but I swear I did it) to get Feng Huang.
Mythological king of birds in Chinese mythology. Originally divided into a male (Feng) and female (Huang) gender, but now exists as a feminine counterpart to the Chinese dragon. Often confused with both Suzaku and the Phoenix, both of which are distinct mythological figures. Persona 4, Persona 5 and Royal incorrectly translate this Persona’s name as “Phoenix”.
: The reason that people can tell the translation is off, by the way, is that Joker will shout “Ho-oh!” when he summons it if you’re using the Japanese voices. “Ho-oh” is the Japanese name for Feng Huang… though you’ve probably heard that name if you’ve ever played Pokemon Gold or Silver. The encyclopedia entry for it in P5 and Royal is also a dead giveaway.
: To the best of my knowledge, Feng Huang is the only mythological figure to be both a Persona and a Pokemon under the same name.
: Anyway, Feng Huang fucking RULES. It starts with Atomic Bloodline, reducing the cost of Freila to 4 SP… in addition to learning Nuke Boost for even more Nuclear damage. In the base game, you could trade him in for a Nuke Boost card, but unfortunately that was removed in Royal.
: Oh, and of course we also need it because it’s the first available Faith Persona and we don’t want to permafuck.
: There’s a door we could go through, but also a vent.
: To get the Will Seed, we want to face away from where the Will Seed room is.
: This would’ve been way cooler if they had Joker just kick his way through the doors from the grappling hook.
: There’s another route you can use to find a second grapple point.
: Just like the other “Black” items, the Black Kogatana isn’t a weapon by itself, but a trade-in item for returning Personas.
: Oni are now a regular enemy, and here’s where I want to show why All-Outing a Disaster Shadow is the best way to deal with them.
: We get an All-Out, which kills both High Pixies easily but doesn’t kill the Oni.
: That does though.
: You might notice that there’s red areas behind us on the map. This is because going through the vents effectively bypasses a couple of hallways. There’s nothing really in those, so they’re safe to skip.
: There’s another lock at the top.
: Right after this hallway, we’ll be going back to the canon save file.
: Here we have Yaksini, who I didn’t grab even on the canon file because they’re kind of a pain to negotiate with.
: Yaksini is kind of useless anyway. They have one useful skill - “Attack Master” (formerly Auto-Tarukaja) which gives you an attack buff at the start of every battle. Unfortunately, they don’t learn that until level 23 - meaning you’re either grinding with a Persona that only knows physical skills or waiting until October to be able to level one up automatically from fusion… at which point there are other options.
: Yaksini is also very weak to nuclear.
: And now we get Makoto’s finisher screen.
: The elevator leads into this long hallway with nothing interesting in it.
: And now it’s time for us to rejoin the canon file.
Aspect of the human soul that represents calmness and functionality. Opposite of Ara Mitama.
: Nigi Mitama is garbage for a reason I only discovered after I fused it. First, Relief Bloodline only works in combat. If you heal out of combat, you pay the full SP cost.
: I’m also pretty sure that Divine Grace only works in combat. The only reason I fused it is because I had a Queen’s Necklace to get rid of and my Persona roster was full… and because we still need a Councillor Persona for Maruki.
Two-headed dog born from the titans Typhon and Echidna. Brother to Cerberus (but not Pascal the Dog), the Sphinx, and the Chimera. Belonged to the titan Geryon, and was slain by Heracles during his labors.
: Orthrus is basically set up to be an enemy, and his skill set as a Persona is kind of questionable.
: “Y-You bastards… how did you get this far!? What about my security!?”
: “Sorry, that shit was a piece of cake for us!”
: “…Well, I wouldn’t say it was that simple…”
: And now, not even ten minutes after fighting Sui-Ki and Fuu-Ki separately, we fight them plus a Kin-Ki in the same battle.
: Joker knocks down the Fuu-Ki and Baton Passes to Makoto, who wipes out nearly half of Sui-Ki’s HP in one go. Kin-Ki is also very weak to Psychic but I couldn’t change Personas due to the “one change per turn” rule.
: Instead, I have Ann light the Kin-Ki on fire.
: Then Makoto gets bullshitted to death. This is not the first time this happens in this dungeon, nor will it be the last. Giving enemies the ability to technical was kind of a mistake because it potentially allows any enemy to pull a Mot and bullshit their way into six or seven press turns at a time if they get lucky.
: Sui-Ki down, and Kin-Ki at low HP.
: Fuu-Ki gets a faceful of lead, and dies from the Showtime.
: And then Yusuke finishes off the Kin-Ki with a physical attack.
: “Grrr, he took off while we were busy fightin’…”
: This is what the rest of this dungeon is going to be - finding bits of this substitution cypher and using it to open doors.
: “The pages afterward have been torn out as well. Could it be a code of some sort?”
: I should mention that Kaneshiro’s Palace is one of two dungeons that were the source of a lot of complaints about the base game. There were some changes made, which you’ll see coming up.
: “If we’re not gonna figure this shit out now, we should just keep goin’ forward, yeah?”
: “Considering Kaneshiro’s reaction, this elevator should lead us to the innermost part of the bank. If so, it’ll be the most secure area as well. Let’s make sure we’re ready for whatever awaits!”
: I did a little bit of grinding here because Joker was very close to level 26, and I wanted to hit that in order to get a Take-Minakata.
: This is what Harisen Recovery looks like - Ann pulls out a giant paper fan and hits Joker with it.
: I’ll log Oni (and Yaksini) at the end of the update, since they were only in the party long enough for me to add them to the compendium. That’s one thing I re-learned in this dungeon: if you negotiate with a demon but don’t actually add them to your party (ie; because your party was full and you chose to not take them) you don’t get them in the compendium.
: This is what happens if you try and negotiate with a brainwashed enemy. I can only assume Oni is a cultured Elly and/or Yukiko fan.
: The options even change, which is kind of amusing. The only downside is that you can’t ask for more money, and this also won’t work on enemies that are weak to Psychic because being hit by a weakness clears Brainwashed.
: With that, I immediately went back out to the Velvet Room, because there were even more Personas I wanted to fuse. This is a mistake because of something we unlock after we’re done here.
Son of Okuninushi who lost his arms in a sumo battle with Take-Mikazuchi. Fled to Suwa, where he became the guardian god of Lake Suwa.
: Take-Minakata is pretty good. He covers the total lack of lightning damage I had, plus he eventually learns Elec Boost. The only downside is that he’s Hanged, and we don’t need that until after the next dungeon when we can get better options.
Egyptian mother goddess. Sister of (and also wife to) Osiris, mother of Horus. Associated with nature and magic.
: We need Isis for one reason and one reason alone: the fact that she’s a Priestess persona.
: I could’ve just summoned Apsaras, but there wasn’t much of a point when I could have a half-decent Bless-element Persona.
: Just to get it out of the way, there’s one other Persona I fused while still in the dungeon.
One of the three Fates, daughter of Nyx and Erebus. Spins the thread of life and is responsible for determining when things are born.
: Clotho is another Persona I fused for one reason: we need a Fortune Persona to not permafuck and there are no better options. If you’re playing online and have the DLC, you can fuse Ariadne at 30, but she’s only marginally better.
: “Wh-what the hell!? Are these all vaults!? How messed up is this guy!?”
: “We’re supposed to check all of these for the Treasure!?”
: And then Persona 5 was Payday 2.
: “Hold on, this distinct shape… could it be…”
: “What’s the matter?”
: “If my prediction is correct, we won’t need to check every single one of these small vaults.”
: “For real!?”
: “That is, I hope. I’ll explain why once I’ve confirmed my theory.”
: “I seriously hope so too…”
: “PIN…? So is this gonna open one of the vaults?”
: “Hm, there’s something written above the number pad on here. ‘RICH’… this is disgusting. How obsessed can one man be with money?”
: “Wait, there might be something more than that! Do you think this is connected to that journal…?”
: I am getting serious Bioshock Infinite “Wait a minute, that card!” vibes here.
: “See? It has all of the letters in the word ‘RICH’!”
: The strange thing is that they have Yusuke repeat the whole cypher before you get a chance to do it, but they don’t just… show it on the screen while you’re entering it.
: “What the!? The whole vault moved!?”
: “So my deduction may be correct…”
: I wish actual ATMs had the ability to play custom voice clips when you enter your PIN, because I’d set mine to four minutes of silence followed by a voice going “Hey! I’m a magic ATM! Gimme some coffee and I’ll give you money! Just pour it right on me, it’ll work!”
: “That voice… it’s Kaneshiro! Is he watching us!?”
: “That doesn’t seem to be the case. It sounds more like the voice of his heart… I guess all he really thinks about is money, after all.”
: “So he blackmails people outta their savings and that’s still not enough? What a douche…”
: “More importantly, the message in the journal was the PIN code!”
: “Yes, it seems so… but I doubt it will be that easy from this point forward. The rest of the pages were torn out of the journal. Who knows what clues they may hold…”
: “Well, let’s not get pessimistic. We should look around and try to find some other clues. Time to head further in and find those PINs!”
: I love how they only put in one save room for the entire first half of this dungeon, and then there’s two right next to each other.
: For reference, there are zero enemies between the last save room and this one - in fact, I don’t think it’s even possible for the enemies on the stairs to see you so long as you stay on the lowest level.
: One thing I wanted to point out is that unlike the save rooms in the other palaces, the ones in Kaneshiro’s don’t have that effect where they fade into what the room actually looks like, because this building doesn’t actually exist.
: The first part of this area is a loop with a bunch of cameras in it.
: Fortunately, the switch for them is right across from the place we need to go.
: Here, we meet the final new enemy of this dungeon: Rakshasha.
: Fortunately, I gave Isis a regular Kouha (tier 1 bless, single-target) and use that to exploit Rakshasha’s weakness to Bless. They’re also weak to Wind, so if you fuse Fuu-Ki you can use him to wipe these out.
Wicked spirits in Hindu and Buddhist mythology that feed on human flesh. Known for possessing humans. Capable of shapeshifting and magic.
: Rakshasha is another trash-sona I promptly returned to get a Regenerate 1 card.
: “We may have found the controls we’ve been looking for. Anything we can do here?”
: “Oh, look! The shutter’s gone! We can keep going now!”
: “Man, he seems really worked up…”
: “He must truly not want us gaining access to this ‘Golden Pig’.”
: “Well, pretty sure that one there’s the one he mentioned. Pretty suspicious, if you ask me.”
: “Hm? There’s a note here… it says ‘P=I’.”
: “…The hell’s that supposed to mean?”
: “Wait, the edge of it is torn. Maybe it came from Kaneshiro’s journal?”
: “Oh, so it’s the continuation of the code we found in there! This should be useful!”
: There’s a second code lock down the hall, but we can’t open it yet. The combination is the same every time, and I already over-wrote my save file so I don’t know if you can just open them if you know the combination.
: There’s a chest in an alcove down the stairs from the code lock (marked by the ! on the minimap) with a Model Gun in it.
: The Model Gun is an item that allows you to return certain Personas for guns, but most of the ones that can do that are at or near the end game.
: There’s a little staircase loop that has the second pig we need in it.
: There’s a lot of samey “This must be a clue!” dialog so I’m just gonna cut it.
: I feel like Atlus missed the opportunity to have a dumb Squaresoft thing where you could enter 1930 for “PEAR”, which would give you an unripened pear you could then bring to a different machine and enter “0119” for RIPE to ripen the pear, and then you have to feed the pear to something at the end of the game for Makoto’s ultimate weapon.
: “All right, it worked!”
: “Tch… this isn’t anywhere near your quota for this month. Don’t gimme your excuses. Just go reap every last penny!”
: “This voice again…”
: “I’ll make you understand if you don’t get it… people who can’t earn money are worthless to me!”
: “He’s completely distorted…”
: “It looks like he really believes money is more important than human life… what a pitiful man.”
: “Yeah… let’s finish this qucik. The door’s prolly opened up, so we should head back and check it out.”
: The game asks us if we want to warp back to the start of the vault area, but I didn’t because there was one door I wanted to check.
: All this door does is act as a shortcut between the first room and where the last pig is. It’s meant to be a way to get back to the code input thing from the pig, but because I had already cleared this area out I just walked back the long way.
: “Oooh, it’s open!”
: “This is the second one… I wonder how many more there are…”
: Just like before, we have another sub-area to go through in order to progress.
: This room has barriers all over it. One side is completely impassable.
: The other has a dog.
: Anyway, the solution to this room is to jump up on these shelves full of money.
: At the top is a switch.
: This area introduces a new stealable in the form of these suitcases. It’s a nice touch.
: There’s a locked chest up here we can get with a Golden Vest in it. It’s a slight upgrade for Makoto.
: You can kind of see the path we have to take on the minimap, but notice that golden door up there.
: “Hmm… and there’s also this weird pig. Maybe we should do some recoinassance first.”
: I don’t remember these being in the base game, but they let you skip parts of the vault area by paying.
: “I get that employees would have to show their keycards, but…”
: “They gotta pay too!? And that definitely ain’t cheap!”
: “So, Kaneshiro even views his own employees as exploitable resources.”
: “…I’m sure it’ll make him a little money, but I doubt it’ll amount to anything substantial.”
: “What should we do? I don’t think we should have to pay Kaneshiro…”
: This door can actually be opened from the other side. There’s another one in the next area that can’t be, at least as far as I know.
: We’ve seen this before - another hallway full of cameras.
: I feel like they could’ve cut a lot from this dungeon without really making it any less difficult.
: After a quick stop to grind money, I keep going.
: There’s a pig surrounded by cameras. Notice, however, that there’s nothing for a barrier to come out of. So what do we do?
: Simple, we just walk right through and take it. It’s like, a 20% penalty to security level that we’re going to erase the next time we get into a fight.
: Eventually, we come to the other side of the golden door. This place is pretty much a straight hallway.
: Joker’s just like “Hugs? I can do that.” and then proceeds to embrace Yusuke.
: I would post the “You don’t even know English” thing but technically they’re all speaking Japanese.
: “So we’ll need to transpose this one into numbers too. I hope we can do it with the hints we have…”
: Before you can even attempt it, the game repeats basically the same dialog again… even if you already have all the information you need to solve it.
: I should mention that I’m skipping the unlocking animation, but it plays in full every time you solve one of these.
: “Great, it looks like the vault opened up even more now.”
: “Well then, we should keep-”
: “This isn’t enough… I need to have a huge presence!”
: “What now?”
: “I’m done having other people walk all over me… it’s my turn now…”
: “He is beyond redemption… it seems he cares not for those he tramples upon himself.”
: “Every step we take is strengthening my resolve. Let’s push onward.”
: Instead of taking the warp out, I decided to bust down the gold door, just to see what would happen.
: There’s really no point to doing this.
: “Check it out! This one’s open for us now too!”
: “This movement… there can be no doubt.”
: “Hm? Did you notice something?”
: “Wh-what do you mean…? Can you explain that a little more?”
: Specifically, it’s a giant disc-detainer lock with six discs, but the last two are false discs that don’t actually work.
: “The cylinder is the mechanism that judges if a key is the proper shape. If you use the correct key and all the discs align, the lock opens.”
: “Now that you mention it, while the walls rotate, the path forward has remained facing the same way…”
: “So you’re saying the whole floor is just one giant lock…?”
: “That’s right. All the smaller vaults in here aren’t important. There has to be an area further in, locked away by the room itself.”
: “And that’s where the Treasure’s gotta be! Sweet, let’s get goin’!”
: Of course, it’s not quite that simple.
: This is Khumbanda. Normally, he’s a mid-40s trash Persona.
: The wiki claims he’s weak to Nuke and not Bless. They’re wrong.
: This is when I went out and fused Clotho, and also did some minor Persona shuffling to get everything in order.
: “I guess that’s why the Shadow was protecting it?”
: “Hm, it doesn’t seem to require any keys, but there are buttons on the left and right of the box…”
: “There must be a reason that thing was guarding it. Let’s try and figure out why.”
: Anyway, there’s two control panels, one way goes to progress, but we’re not doing that yet.
: “There are Shadows here as well, perhaps they are protecting something.”
: “That one seems pretty tough… we’ll have to make sure we’re good and ready.”
: Oh no. That’s not…
: It is. It’s Cerberus, though I doubt this one is Pascal the Dog. He opens with Vajra Blast, which fucking HURTS.
: That’s the only attack he gets off the entire fight. Cerberus is weak to Ice, meaning we can use both Nigi Mitama and Yusuke to get two All-Outs per turn.
: On Makoto’s turn, I have her use… I forget which spell it is… to make Cerberus forgetful. Forgetful is this game’s equivalent of silence, and Cerberus will ONLY use skills to attack - meaning he’ll just waste his turn as long as it’s on him.
: The will seed is right behind him.
: The Crystal of Gluttony is useless.
: One more area of kicking power boxes and we’re done.
: “Not to worry - we just need to deal with the power to the bars like we did before.”
: “Based on how this looks, we’re going to have to find a bunch of power boxes…”
: There’s a bunch of stealables at ground level, but at this point we don’t really need to care about those. This is where I wound up getting bullshitted to death, but I didn’t capture that.
: One of the boxes we need is in the corner here.
: We can then grapple up to the top of the shelves and access the rest of the room.
: You can see both of the remaining boxes up here. This one disables the cameras.
: In the middle is this locked box, which I think in the base game had a gun for Makoto, but in Royal just has a Bead Chain.
: I knew it! Ohio was the real villain all along!
: “So we’re getting into calculations now… good grief.”
: There’s a platform we can’t reach that just has a couple of stealables on it, and the weird thing (from a design perspective) is that you’re not likely to find where that vent leads until after you have the last clue and can warp back to the main area.
: “Daaamn! This is nuts…!”
: “Safes everywhere… Kaneshiro must have gained an obscene amount of money. Though, walking around the Palace, I don’t see anything that he seems to have spent it on…”
: I feel like the game has a hard time making the distinction between the shadow and the actual character. We saw Kaneshiro give some random hostess $30,000, so chances are the real Kaneshiro is spending it.
: “Perhaps all he wants to do with it is hoard it… now’s not the time for this discussion, though. Let’s keep going.”
: “Hey, look at that!”
: “And isn’t that the power for the bars?”
: “Oh. You’re right - we can’t go this way. I guess we’ll just have to look for a different path.”
: There’s another gold door down the hall from the barrier. Unlike the other one, I don’t think you can open this one from the other side because it’s a one-way trip.
: There’s two camera boxes you can break in here, and honestly this whole dungeon has been kind of repetitive ever since they introduced that mechanic.
: At about the 3/4 mark through this hallway is a spot you can jump up to get a chest with three Luck Incense in it. Unfortunately, incense is nowhere near as good in this game as it was in Persona 1 and Innocent Sin.
: This is because your character’s stats are now derived entirely from their Persona, and since we change Personas frequently there’s no reason to use this on any of them.
: On the way down, I get ambushed by an Orthrus and two High Pixies - what I want to point out is that when Joker is in the “surrounded” formation, he can shoot enemies behind him without moving.
: And that’s level 28. Unfortunately, all of the Personas at level 28 are kinda trash. At this point, we are now in or past negotiation range for all of the enemies in the next dungeon except the red shadows.
: We probably wouldn’t have hit 28 except that because I got bullshitted to death, I had to re-do this entire area. Getting a game over keeps all of your EXP and money but resets chests and objectives.
: Another hallway full of cameras, because we haven’t had enough of that yet.
: The last code machine is down here, along with the vent that takes you to that platform in the other room we couldn’t reach.
: To get into where the pig is, there’s a room right across from the code machine with these safes that magically open when we get close.
: “Ugh, it’s like, algebra or something! I’m getting confused…”
: “Panther… this is really just simple addition…”
: Kicking the box opens up a grappling hook point on the other side from where the barrier is.
: All it does is bring you up to a chest with an SP restoring item in it.
: One round trip across the entire room later…
: Gonna cut some repeat dialogue here.
: And now we have access to where the Treasure is. Dungeon complete, apart from the fact that I still want to farm money a bit.
: “Again?”
: “This… this is the fruit of all my hard labor!”
: “He thinks robbin’ people is something to celebrate? Tha guy needs to get his brain checked…”
: Says the kid who technically robbed two people and celebrated it both times.
: “With this much, I will be invincible! Omnipotent! I’ve changed… I’m no longer the person I used to be…”
: “The person he used to be…? What could have happened to make him so distorted?”
: “I don’t know, but no matter what kind of past he had, his actions are unforgivable.”
: “That’s right. Now, if my deductions are accurate, that should’ve been the final mechanism.”
: “All right then. Let’s head back and check out the vault! We know where it is, so going back should be easy.”
: “You’re like some kinda prophet, Queen…”
: “It’s mostly thanks to that notebook. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for that. More importantly, did you hear all those things Shadow Kaneshiro was saying?”
: “Oh yeah, I was wondering about that! Didn’t he seem kinda… insecure or something?”
: “Exactly. He kept bringing up how rich and powerful he wants to be.”
: “So if he’s insecure about that shit… he thinks he’s really just some poor weakling, huh?”
: “Maybe by thinking he was going to be a strong, wealthy man, he convinced himself it was true.”
: “I wonder… well, we will discover the truth for ourselves when we change his heart. Let us hurry, Joker.”
: “I don’t see anything.”
: “Once we get this far, we need this callin’ card thing.”
: “A calling card… I see… making the target believe that the Treasure is in danger will cause it to materialize. That’s quite a bold trick.”
: “Huh? She understood?”
: Ann wants to be the smart girl.
: “Joker, we’ll defer to you regarding its timing.”
: The good news is I won’t have to do a cut, because we send the card out tomorrow and then do the boss on 06/27.
: “In the end, that Kaneshiro bastard only showed his stupid face once…”
: “That doesn’t matter. As long as we steal the Treasure, we’ll change his heart.”
: I actually did grind more. I had about 400,000 yen by the end of the dungeon, but I wanted to get at least half a million to make sure we’re covered on expenses.
: While we’ve already done pretty much the single largest expense we’ll have (that being the SP adhesives) we still need to pay 100,000 yen to start the confidant with the fortune teller. We’ll also be spending somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 yen a day on confidants.
: Actually, I calculated it out. We need a BARE MINIMUM of 200,000 yen just to not permafuck. That amount would be higher if we hadn’t bought the Famicom from the recycling store already.
: One fun thing I discovered while grinding is that High Pixies basically can’t hurt you. Their AI seems to always cast Dormina to put people to sleep and then never follows up, so you can just use them to take a nap for SP.
: On the way out, the Velvet Room door starts glowing red and we get a tutorial. I’m going to do my own instead because I think my way shows it off better.
: The red lighting signifies a fusion alarm, which is a new mechanic added for Royal. Allow me to explain how it works while I fuse a disgustingly overpowered Persona with it.
: During a Fusion Alarm, several things happen. One of them is that the reward for returning a Persona is improved - skills will either get upgraded to the next tier or made into a “ma” version (as an example, Take-Minakata usually returns a Zionga card but under a Fusion Alarm returns a Mazionga card).
: I should mention that the Treasure Demons all have unique accessories which also improve under an alarm.
: We had a low-level Angel sitting around, and I had reached level 29 while grinding, which opens up the third Justice Persona. I fuse the Angel we had with a Regent and go for an Archangel.
: Fusion Alarms increase the stats of any Personas you fuse, as well as opening up more slots to inherit abilities and potentially upgrading some of your skills.
Angels who serve as the ministers and messengers between the Judeo-Christian God and mankind.
: Archangel gets a pretty significant stat boost.
: Dazzler and Magaru both flash red, meaning they’ll potentially change. If the fusion isn’t an accident, you can choose whether or not to change. I said yes.
: Dazzler gets upgraded to Nocturnal Flash, which attempts to inflict Dizzy on all enemies. Magaru gets upgraded to Garula.
: You’ll notice that Archangel is now marked in yellow. This means that if we use him to fuse something else, there is a near-100% chance for a fusion accident. If an accident doesn’t occur, you instead get a stat boost.
: I’m pretty sure the alarm will cancel if you leave to save, so let’s just do it and see what happens.
: Principality is a rock fucking solid Persona. It gets half SP cost on Bless spells and learns Bless Boost, which both increases Bless damage and also the chances that the Hama spell line instakills.
: Just like in Persona 1 and 2, the “skip” prompt disappears if you get an accident.
: The guillotine blade sparks and skids to a halt.
: We get an Eligor instead, which at first I was kind of pissed off about. Just wait for it.
: During an accident, all the skills change and… oh shit. That’s Agidyne and Garudyne. We’re not supposed to be able to get those for… quite a while.
: Getting an accident will cause Caroline to kick you out. So now we’ve got two amazing skills stuck on a trash-sona. What do we do about this?
: Well… it just so happens that if you fuse Eligor and Incubus, you get Principality. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
Angels tasked with overseeing groups of people and bestowing blessings upon them. Associated with the Sephirah Netzach.
: By itself, Principality is a solid Bless-element Persona. With these skills? This thing is going to murder the hell out of Kaneshiro.
: See that? That was a Rakshasha. We have now broken the game in two. I did get a second fusion alarm (they occur randomly after winning a battle) but it didn’t go as planned and I had to spend a bunch of money to re-summon stuff.
: You might ask if I saved that Eligor to the compendium, and the answer is yes, so I can use it to fuse some even more disgusting stuff down the line. The next time we get a fusion alarm, my goal is to get Megidolaon around level 34.
: We leave the palace with 580,000 yen. Considering we haven’t sold any of the treasure items and still have a Mementos visit before the next dungeon, we should be more than fine.
: I check the TV shopping thing and buy this. It gives you two Black Rocks (useless) and a Black Robe (yes.)
: We spend the night crafting, because we need Proficiency 4 to get the final Technical upgrade. Not that we need it.
: The game acknowledges that I have broken it by giving me the extra two points.
: Next time, we’re going to send the calling card and introduce Kaneshiro to our new angel friend.
God dammit why didn’t I think of that.
This is why we have to keep Morgana out of the party, because they need all hands on deck to deal with Morgana every time they use a Showtime Attack.
One thing I should probably mention from the last update: apparently, I just got really lucky with that fusion accident I had.
[Image Credit: https://twitter.com/virtuoustyrfing/status/1353216203473342464]
You can kind of get completely boned with skills. As far as I’m aware, this isn’t something that person intentionally set up - so just make sure to save before you do anything with a fusion alarm.
[Image Credit: https://twitter.com/Keymaster333/status/1353374992415657985]
This one was posted in the same thread, and… actually, I probably would’ve taken this because Life Aid (regens 8% SP AND HP per turn) is fucking amazing. I don’t think it stacks with the SP adhesive, but 8% SP (as opposed to a flat 7) is nothing to laugh at. That’s potentially a free -dyne or ma-dyne spell at higher levels with the right trait setup.
Anyway, the next time I get a fusion alarm I know what I’m doing. If I can get Life Aid on the same Persona as the Agidyne and Garudyne we got, and potentially get Megidolaon…
Yes. It’s also algebra.
It makes sense to replace the fortuneteller’s VA, since she would need new lines for the confidant phonecalls, but does Kaneshiro have any new lines? If not, that’s kind of strange.
Kaneshiro actually does - he has a new phase to his boss fight which makes it even more tedious than it used to be. I’m almost done covering that in the new update.
The reason they had to replace the VA for Chihaya (the fortuneteller) surprisingly has nothing to do with the confidant phone calls. Most confidant events aren’t voiceacted at all. They usually play generic VO clips over the text.
No the reason they had to replace Chihaya’s VA is that Royal adds two new fully-voiced events, those being Valentine’s Day and White Day. Because Chihaya is a potential romance option, she has to be there, and that’s why they had to get a new VA.
: “No, I was up very early, shooting a news show. I have much more work in television because of the Phantom Thieves.”
: “I have permission from my school, but it’s still tough to do both. …Ah, I can’t keep complaining. Well, let’s both do our best today.”
: She acts like it’s abnormal for it to be hot and humid in the middle of summer.
: "Oh yeah. In Japan, when the rainy season ends, we say that it ‘opens.’ "
: “But in English, it’s more common to hear people say the rainy season ‘comes to a close’. Be careful! Expressions for the weather are totally different depending on what country you’re in.”
: “Now then… Mr. Kurusu! Which of these animals is involved in an English idiom about the weather?”
: I have to wonder if questions like this are there to make up for all the ones in Persona 4 that no English speaker would be likely to know.
: “That’s right! Raining cats and dogs. ‘Raining cats and dogs’ means it’s pouring rain. The strongest theory for its origin is that the sound of rain resembles that of dogs and cats fighting.”
: “Some other European languages describe bad weather as ‘dog’s weather’ too. Additionally, in Norwegian they say it’s raining witches, and in Polish they say it’s raining frogs.”
: “Each country has its own way of describing heavy rain - and its own metaphorical substitute falling from the sky.”
: “Oh yeah, over here they say that when a cat washes its face, it rains. I clean my face every day because I like being clean, and lemme tell you, that’s a load of bull.”
: “Oh, uh, but I’m not a cat, of course.”
: The Showtime attack with Ryuji and Makoto unlocks I believe the day you send the calling card for Kaneshiro, so you won’t ever have it for the dungeon itself.
: In hindsight, I probably should’ve just made my own schedule for 100% because then I could have screenshots of this ready to go, but that’s what Youtube is for.
: All of the videos I could find of it had spoilers, so I’m not going to link a video of it.
: “Ah- Hey, Makoto!”
: “Hm? Is something wrong?”
: “Nah, nah, it’s nothin’…”
: “Well, it definitely doesn’t seem like it’s ‘nothin’ to you…”
: “Uh, so… I’ve been doin’ a little thinkin’, and… how do I put it… I guess I was thinkin’ about comin’ up with a new move - like a special tag-team move, kinda thing.”
: “So, I got this idea while playin’ a video game, and… it’s a move that’s gonna need your help…”
: “My help?”
: “Know what? Never mind. I just saw something like it in the game and thought it looked cool… when I try to say it out loud, it seems too insane…”
: “Insane, huh? So, in other words, you may have come across a special attack that outclasses any of our previous moves?”
: “I wha…?”
: “Why don’t you tell me your idea? By the way you described it, it must be a pretty good one.”
: “Uh, alright… just… don’t get mad at me, okay?”
: “I… see…”
: “Heh, so stupid, right!? Yeah, I was just jokin’! Haha… please forget what I said.”
: “…That could work.”
: “Yeah, that could work - wait, what?”
: “But, if we’re going to do this, we’ll have to push ourselves harder than ever before. Think you can keep up?”
: “Yes, ma’am! We’re gonna show 'em the real meaning of pain!”
: “We should probably get going now, though. I wouldn’t want to make everyone else wait.”
: “Yeah!”
: “I would agree, but it will not be an easy task this time.”
: “Yeah, nobody actually knows him…”
: “There’s so goddamn much I wanna write on the calling card too…”
: “Oh, Akira! So get this, I was talking with Makoto earlier and we came up with this insane move!”
: “Well… it’s a bit difficult to explain with words alone…”
: “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything! Alright, so the plan is…”
: Ryuji and Makoto’s Showtime is one of the few that has a similar name in both versions. The English name is “Max Moxie” while the Japanese one is “Mad Mix”. Did anyone tell Atlus that Mad Max wasn’t a spaghetti western?
: And before anyone says Mad Max was technically a western, it wasn’t a spaghetti western.
: In the English dub, Ryuji goes “Get ready for the Fist of the Phantom Star!” I’m not sure if that reference persists in the Japanese voiceacting, because all the people who recorded this on Youtube are tasteless cretins who prefer the dub.
: So like… was her elbowing him part of his plan?
: It’s hard to see in stills, but she’s doing the whole Fist of the North Star thing.
: So like, okay, which parts of that did Ryuji actually plan?
: This is probably my least favorite out of all the Showtime attacks, by the way. They should’ve done something based on The Fast and The Furious and had both of them on motorcycles.
: “So it’s just like how it reacted with Lady Ann and I last time? It doesn’t react at all at other times, though… I don’t get how this thing works.”
: “Instead of granting wishes, maybe it just offers a bit of support…? As long as it benefits us in some way, I’m happy.”
: “Then let’s give it a try when there’s an opportunity. Make sure to match my timing, okay?”
: “Yes, ma’am!”
: Today, all we’re doing is sending the calling card.
: “Now the question is, how do we deliver the calling card to him?”
: “Yeah, we don’t know where he lives…”
: “Hm? Why not use the same method as before?”
: There’s a couple of Personas that turn into some pretty good armor that opens up after the Kaneshiro arc is done, so I’ll be using that Black Robe to save some money.
: We spend the night crafting again. I’m reasonably sure we have enough lockpicks to last us the rest of the game, so I just make some useless stuff.
: “Hm? Read it.”
: “I said, read it!”
: I’m just imagining Kaneshiro meeting Joker in the boss arena and it doing the Yakuza thing where it explains what family he’s from, and all he sees is “John Persona Family Patriarch - A Division of the John Persona Clan - John Persona”
: I’m also not sure if it’s a coincidence or not, but the Yakuza games often use the title “Menacing Man” for any subquest-related enemies.
: “What of it?”
: What’s funny is that the game goes into the whole idea of Kaneshiro being a dead man even if John Persona doesn’t kill him - if he confesses he’s probably going to die in prison. Hell, if Yakuza 7 is anything like reality there’s a chance his patriarch would kill him even if he didn’t confess because of the dumb shit he was pulling.
: “Don’t waste your time worrying about this useless shit. Just keep quiet for now.”
: “Grr… all of you, bring me your earnings! If you don’t surpass your quota… I’ll kill you.”
: “Hey, we’re leaving.”
: “A good idea, no? Given the theatrical nature of this one, Kaneshiro must surely have been contacted about it.”
: “You truly are the brains of this Phantom Thieves operation! Ryuji, you should follow her example!”
: “Y’know I’m the one who went postin’ it everywhere, right!? I even had to get all dressed up so they wouldn’t notice me!”
: “Come now, we don’t have time for idle chitchat. Let us get moving.”
: “We’re going up against a truly horrible criminal this time…”
: But Ryuji, Mara isn’t in this game! At least, not in his usual form.
: “Makoto! You remember how all this works?”
: Oh, right. I’ve been playing this game called Enchanted Arms recently (I’m probably going to do an LP of it) and the main character is a dumbass to the point of being completely non-functional.
: That game also has a party member named Makoto (who is a campy gay guy) and the main character’s English VA pronounces his name like “Mac-otto”. I can’t tell if it’s on purpose or not, because the other VAs can pronounce it just fine.
: It is absolutely canon that Ryuji pronounces Makoto’s name this way. I refuse to believe it isn’t.
: “Once we steal the Treasure, the Palace will crumble and the Palace ruler’s heart will change.”
: Why they’re still telling me this when I’ve already seen it twice, I have no idea.
: “Wow, you got that quick! I think Ryuji’s still struggling to comprehend it all…”
: Just to show how pointless the last save point is, I started from before the elevator and ran all the way down here.
: “He was waitin’ for us!”
: You can actually dick around the boss arena if you want - for some reason, the game doesn’t just proceed right to the boss fight.
: “A safe!? This wasn’t here the last time we came! He changed the entire room so quickly… tch, I guess this Palace isn’t a bank for nothing.”
: The room hasn’t actually changed, apart from the back wall.
: “I’m surprised you made it here alive. It seems you are quite lucky.”
: “Lucky? Don’t be ridiculous.”
: “We’re gonna change your heart and make you confess everything you’ve done. That’ll save all those people who’re suffering 'cause of your shitty actions.”
: “Even the police’re strugglin’ to deal with you, so this’ll make the public believe in us too!”
: “Those in power work the ones below them to the bone for money. Such is the hierarchy of the world. Just accept your fate as a source of my wealth!”
: “We’ll never agree to that!”
: “And hierarchy? You have to be out of your mind.”
: “Still! Don’t you think you’re getting back at the wrong people?”
: “What a pitiful man.”
: “It doesn’t matter whether you’re clean or dirty! Only the clever come out on top! The strong and the smart devour the weak. That is the natural order of things.”
: Kaneshiro is clearly on Team Chaos, since this is almost word-for-word the way the Gaians describe their plan in SMT 1.
: “You damn brats who think you know the world through the shit you read online will make perfect prey.”
: “Hmph. He is utterly hopeless.”
: “It’s always the fools who get tricked! Fools who have to pay for their foolishness. And if those fools don’t learn, well they have to suck it up and stay as plain, stupid fools!”
: What is he, Franziska von Karma?
: “Will you just shut it already!?”
: “I guess there’s not much point saying anything to you fools! This is where my gracious lecture ends. Now then, I hope you’re ready to work as slaves here for the rest of your lives.”
: “That’s outrageous!”
: Kaneshiro starts bulging at the seams, which is kind of unnecessary given what his demon form is.
: I don’t quite understand why the goons run away when they’re constructs made by Kaneshiro’s brain, but whatever.
: Meet Bael, which is just Kaneshiro in a dumbass halloween costume.
: I like that they just mirrored the textures on the goon’s jacket so the text is backwards. Not that I’m blaming them, given this is an asset that’s in all of what, two cutscenes?
: That thing looks a lot like the time machine from the end of Earthbound.
: That cutscene was way longer than it needed to be. Welcome to the Kaneshiro fight, which was utter bullshit in the base game unless you understood the gimmick… which I kind of just ignored.
: Basically, you get a turn or two of Piggytron just sitting still and not doing anything. It’s got some pretty high magic resistance, so even Principality doesn’t do a whole lot.
: I did this fight wrong on purpose because we’re so overlevelled and I wanted to see if I could do it. Ordinarily, you wouldn’t want to bring Yusuke because Missile Party is a full-party fire attack… which Yusuke is weak to.
: If he downs anyone, Kaneshiro will then follow up with Ocular Vulcan, which spreads out a number of weaker Gun-type hits among the party. We’re so overpowered that there’s no reason to give a shit.
: This attack was the bullshit one. When you get this message, you’re supposed to change targets to Kaneshiro himself - doing enough damage will knock him off the pig and give you time to hit it.
: Instead, I just keep nuking it.
: After one turn of spinning, if you haven’t knocked Kaneshiro off, he uses March of the Pigs. March of the Pigs was a guaranteed instakill in the base game on anything that wasn’t a New Game Plus file, even through guard.
: Needless to say, the damage on it was reduced significantly for Royal, specifically because a lot of people got hit by this assuming they could guard it and didn’t know about targeting Kaneshiro himself.
: I was planning on dying just to show it off, but then I didn’t and was just like “Fuck it, I’m just gonna do this in one take”.
: At this point, I just put Joker on heals (he can bring the party to full from near-empty in two Mediaramas) and had everyone else continue nuking the pig.
: The pattern repeats from there as long as you haven’t knocked Kaneshiro off his pig - he’ll use Super VIP Form, charge, and then use March of the Pigs.
: The base game did this too… even though you had to have figured out the gimmick in order to get this far. Naturally, we’re not going to be throwing any items because fuck engaging with game mechanics.
: If you do choose to try it, you get a choice of three items and there’s a chance that Kaneshiro stops his attack.
: The problem is that the only items that work are ones you probably don’t want to throw away: things like Beads, Bead Chains, and SP restoratives.
: Basically, the only difference between doing the fight correctly and what I’m doing is that doing it correctly would take longer because we’d spend a full turn attacking Kaneshiro every three turns.
: In the base game, the fight was over when you took out Piggytron, but the developers decided that wasn’t tedious enough.
: In this form, Kaneshiro will do nothing but spam Lullaby every time his turn comes up.
: He and his bodyguards will then follow up with Technicals.
: The game does a very bad job explaining this, but basically, the “Bodyguard for Hire” (the big fly with the shields) will step in and take any damage Kaneshiro would take. The other one doesn’t do anything.
: Both of the flies resist everything, except one absorbs Curse and one absorbs Bless.
: This is about the worst way you could possibly go about doing this. Trust me, I tried it. I spent four or so turns doing nothing but using Dormina and other sleep moves on the bodyguard… and none of them landed.
: I did manage to sleep the other fly, but it just wakes up after a few turns.
: Here’s a much, much better strategy. Have everyone just use damage spells on the bodyguard and technical whenever possible. This way you’re at least doing damage to it and not wasting your turn trying to put status effects on it.
: Now, here’s where you can tell this fight was just intended to be pure tedium.
: At half health, Kaneshiro will use Make it Rain.
: This does a shit-ton of damage, but Joker completely evades it. From what I’ve read, it’s scripted to be unable to actually kill anyone.
: The next turn, he’ll use it again, only this time a single coin falls down and does nothing.
: If the other fly is still alive, it’ll leave at this point.
: Even though Kaneshiro stops fighting back once he runs out of money, you still have to kill him, because I’m not sure Atlus learned anything from the base game.
: In fact, now I’m kind of interested in seeing the changes they supposedly made to the fifth dungeon. The fifth dungeon was a lot of backtracking and the boss was a source of a lot of complaints.
: It wasn’t until after the fight that I realized there’s probably a better strategy: have Ann use Fire Break (which removes fire resistance) on the bodyguard so she does full damage.
: “I’m not gonna let anyone have it… this is my money…”
: “You stole it all from innocent people!”
: “Fine. I’ll call off the debt…”
: “Fine? You’re still soundin’ pretty condescendin’.”
: “You’re right… I’m a poor, ugly idiot… how am I supposed to live a normal life like this?”
: “It’s all because of our society! Weak people can’t lead a happy life, no matter what they do! I’m a victim too, you know!? Yeah, none of this is my fault!”
: “The more you talk, the more pathetic you sound.”
: “I just wanted a place where I could belong! You get that, don’t you!?”
: “Bullshit! All you did was surround yourself with people you could use, solely for some easy money!”
: “And you think you’re the only one who’s gotta deal with bein’ labeled? Me… and all these other guys… we’re all fightin’ against that!”
: “But don’t worry. You’ll finally have a place where you belong. Somewhere you can make amends, for the rest of your life.”
: “We’re gonna do somethin’ about that distorted heart of yours. Free of charge.”
: “I’m glad you understand. Now hurry up and return to the real Kaneshiro.”
: It sounds like there should be a line between Ryuji and Yusuke, but there isn’t. I checked both my recording and a couple others.
: “Seriously? You guys don’t have any tact. Especially with that incredible power… these Palaces could net you loads of cash! You could do whatever you wanted to people’s hearts!”
: “We’re not like you!”
: “Where do you find meaning in that naive sense of justice? You know, there’s already someone out there taking full advantage of what Palaces have to offer…”
: “What?”
: I kinda wish he’d say something we don’t already know.
: “Is that… the same person Madarame’s Shadow spoke of?”
: “Spill it! Who’re you talkin’ about!?”
: It should already be pretty obvious who it is. I knew going in because the game had been heavily spoiled pre-release, but even not knowing it should be pretty obvious.
: “Don’t even bother. You are nothing compared to them… better be careful… a chance encounter with them could prove fatal…”
: “We can think about that later! Grab the Treasure - there’s no time!”
: “In that case, we should take that large one… wait, what!?”
: “T-Treasure…”
: “What’s gotten into him!?”
: Joker immediately reaches for his air horn, and motions to everyone else that they should just forego the van and run away.
: In the Gay Joker Edition of the game, Joker does one of those slow-motion dives and blasts Morgana with a fire hose before he can reach Ann.
: “You shouldn’t throw animals, dammit!”
: “Enough, already! Let’s get it in, everyone! Hurry!”
: How they had enough time to load all those giant gold bars (which would probably need to be moved with industrial equipment) is beyond me.
: “Owww…”
: “I think I cracked my ass…”
: “Ann, are you all right!? Is yours cracked as well?”
: “Of course not!”
: “Isn’t it supposed to be though?”
: “Urgh, that’s not what I meant! More importantly, it’s dangerous for us to just charge out like that!”
: “Ack! Everyone’s staring at us!”
: RIP Morgana, killed by his own hubris.
: “That briefcase…”
: “It appears to have been the cause of Morgana’s demise…”
: “That’s not what I meant! Isn’t that Kaneshiro’s…”
: “You mean his Treasure!?”
: Joker looks at everyone and asks if anyone wants to say a few words. No one does.
: “How about at karaoke?”
: “We’d have security cameras to worry about there.”
: “Oh, I got the perfect place.”
: “That’s right!”
: “I was just in the mood for some coffee too.”
: “And we need to fix Morgana up!”
: “So… warm…”
: When I recorded this, I had no idea why Morgana was crying and then realized that it’s because Ann is applying antiseptic in the background.
: “A rotary lock, hm?”
: “…I knew it.”
: “How did you get that?”
: “I simply memorized the combination. I saw him open and close it so many times, after all.”
: This part I don’t quite get. She was on the floor for most of the initial confrontation, and Kaneshiro had the lock on the briefcase facing away from her.
: “W-Well that’s… scary. But amazin’ too!”
: “Urghhh, that burns… hey, hurry up and open it!”
: “H-How much is this?!”
: “I believe one stack is one million yen… hm?”
: “One, two, three… uhhh, there’s thirty of them in here!?”
: “You have to think bigger than that…”
: Let’s be real here, if Morgana got any of that money it’d be in Ann’s pocket within a day. Either that or spent at some kind of hostess club that allows animals.
: “Not to bring down the excited mood… but does this look like money to you?”
: If I wasn’t doing that thing where I name all the boss updates after what demon the boss is, I would have named this one “300,000 Bison Dollars”.
: “F-For real!?”
: “I guess this represents… how everything he did was an act to make himself seem tough?”
: I know writers who let their readers come their own conclusions regarding the plot, and they’re all cowards. Actually, wait, no I don’t.
: “Noooooooo!”
: “Well hey, at least it feels like we totes busted this case, right?”
: “What do you mean? Is busting a case good or bad?”
: “Both!”
: “Snrk… chuckle Ahahahaha! To think the reward for the Phantom Thieves is feeling they ‘totes busted’ the case… ahhh… how funny!”
: “Hold on a second. Even though the contents were nothing more than trash, the case itself is quite nice.”
: “All right then, let’s sell it! Glad we got that sorted!”
: “By the way Morgana, have any of your memories returned?”
: “No, not at all…”
: You know, I’m not sure what would be weirder - a world where Morgana hits his head and starts going after women of his own species, or one where he continues to thirst for human women.
: “Something like that. He does remember searching for Treasures though.”
: “Hm. I hope your memories return soon then. So… what happens next?”
: “First, we wait for Kaneshiro to have his change of heart.”
: “It’s gonna be big this time. People’re gonna make a huge deal out of it, for sure.”
: “Hey, you know what Kaneshiro said at the end there? About that ‘criminal’ using the Metaverse…”
: “Yes, I was bothered by that as well.”
: “No point mullin’ over it now. Let’s wait and see how Kaneshiro’s change of heart goes first. We should prolly just lay low for a while.”
: We’ve actually seen the last of Kaneshiro. Unlike Kamoshida or Madarame, Kaneshiro doesn’t have a breakdown scene.
: They’re talking about Kaneshiro, and I’m not sure “phishing” is how I’d describe what he was doing.
: “All we need to do now is let the results come rolling in. We did great today though! Public opinion of us should skyrocket after this!”
: Tonight, we’ll be watching ICU.
: Joker went from “Man, this daytime TV drama is kind of stupid” to “Man, this daytime TV drama is kind of stupid… but the lighting is okay.”
: “Same with Kamoshida, and Madarame too. They hurt and exploited others just to satisfy their desires… still, there were people around them who noticed their terrible deeds, weren’t there?”
: “I wonder why they turned a blind eye… why doesn’t anyone help?”
: “So it’s because they don’t have the courage. Humans are so weak. Humans… hey, do you think I’ll really be able to become a human?”
: No, because you’re merely 90% post-Persona 4 recycled content as opposed to outright being Teddie.
: “When I touched the Treasure… some memories came back. I tried to force myself to forget, but… I really may not be human…”
: “Talk about a lukewarm response. Now that I think about it, I gotta be human. I am the core of the Phantom Thieves, after all!”
: We get an ability that I will never be using. I think the only time I ever had Joker use a melee attack in the base game (once I got the SP adhesives, anyway) was against the one enemy I know of that’s actually weak to physical damage.
: “You’ve defeated the repulsive fiend of gluttony this time. chuckle Well done. I am glad to see you have devoted yourself to your rehabilitation.”
: “You are not worthy of such kind words, inmate… I suggest you treasure them.”
: “Do you recall the whispers about that strange man?”
: “Even a chicken could remember something so important! Don’t sound so cocky about it!”
: I’ve been playing through 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim recently, and it kind of sucks coming from a game where I could get invested in the plot (even if it uses way too many cliffhangers for my liking) back to this crap.
: 13 Sentinels more or less has the opposite problem P5 does: the story is pretty good, but the actual gameplay parts consist of “Set up the guy with the railgun, have him kill everything, you can’t lose”.
: Unfortunately, I can’t LP it because someone else (actually, the guy who is doing the other LP of Royal) took it.
: Not that I’d necessarily want to, because I have about 30% story completion and already know more or less what the entire story is.
: “This is about the cases of those people who shut down, is it not?”
: “Indeed… I speak of another with powers similar to yours. If you are to complete your rehabilitation, you may encounter him eventually… yet another thing for me to look forward to.”
: “It would be greatly troubling if you were to not strengthen your abilities. I shall grant you an ability befitting of your newfound growth. Consider it a gift.”
: This is going to be useful for when we finally get around to doing Caroline and Justine’s confidant.
: I might do a couple ranks of it soon, because it opens up a couple of Personas you can’t otherwise get. The problem is that most of the abilities their confidant gets you aren’t useful until the end of the game.
: Next time, we’ll be back to doing confidants again. The “More Like Yusu-gay” updates will begin soon after that. I may need to delay just a little bit (doing 2 days instead of 3 at one point) to give Eligap enough time to finish the Rank 5 cutscene.
So I’m not clear on how much control everyone had over their Phantom Thief costume. Is Makoto in on the joke or do we need that weird guy explaining meme with Makoto and Ryuji going, “SO THERE WAS A NUCLEAR WAR IN 199X AND EVERYTHING’S A WASTELAND AND THERE’S THIS DUDE NAMED KENSHIRO AND HE’S THE LAST PERSON THAT KNOWS THIS MARTIAL ART CALLED HOKUTO SHINKEN AND HE CAN LIKE PUNCH PEOPLE’S PRESSURE POINTS AND MAKE THEIR HEAD EXPLODE AND SEE HIS OLD RIVAL KIDNAPPED HIS GIRLFRIEND AND…”
There’s a couple of voice lines in Mementos that randomly pop up (which haven’t yet in this run, but I remember seeing in the base game) that explain that. The party has no control over their outfits. In fact, there was a bit of a controversy over the base game because Ann has a couple of Mementos-only voice lines where she says she doesn’t like her costume.
One thing I kind of wish they had done was change the costumes up when you reach a high enough confidant rank.
I gotta say, when this LP started I didn’t anticipate that “fat guy dancing around on a giant piggy bank” would be a boss in this game. But ok atlus you do you ig
The Three Stages of Ann’s Costume:
: What I love about this scene is that there’s absolutely no reason Makoto couldn’t have just used the group IM thing instead of calling.
: I mean, they’re already going the “tell, don’t show” route with Kaneshiro, as we’ll see briefly.
: “There’s something I feel I should let you know. Kaneshiro contacted me.”
: “Kaneshiro!?”
: “He said he’s calling off our debt. It seems he’s disposed of all the photographs as well. And, um… my sister and her team have taken him into custody.”
: “What!?”
: “It appears they did not want him to… disappear, if you know what I mean.”
: Strangely enough, even though the party basically delivered Kaneshiro right into the shadowy conspiracy group that would probably off him anyway, he never dies.
: “His group was called a mafia, after all… I wouldn’t put silencing him past them.”
: “Does this mean we were successful in changing his heart?”
: “It’s hard to say for sure yet.”
: No, I’m sure the amoral yakuza who was exploiting minors for cash just went to the police and turned himself in for no particular reason at all.
: “I see… what about those psychotic breakdowns that Kaneshiro mentioned?”
: Wouldn’t you know!? Your sister is the DA in charge of investigating that!
: I really would like to see what this game would’ve been like if the writing wasn’t constantly repeating itself.
: I mentioned 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim in the last update and I imagine it’d be like that - I liked it up until it started getting dumb near the end, and then completely disengaged with the plot… kind of like what happened with this game.
: “True… that said, all we can do now is wait until Kaneshiro’s change of heart becomes clear to us. Thank you.”
: “A young woman wearing all brand clothing and an older man with gold accessories were arguing. Both were on their high horse, and even though they dressed fancily, it felt noveau riche.”
: “Speaking of, the Japanese words for ‘high horse’ and ‘nouveau riche’ both originated as shogi terms. A lot of people aren’t familiar with shogi, but it’s good to know a little bit about it.”
: “So, Kurusu-kun. Have you seen this piece before?”
: I had to look it up, but this is the Knight piece. Shogi is honestly one of those things that I’ve never cared enough about to get into.
: “That’s right. The lance and the silver general also have the kanji for ‘gold’ on the back. By the way, it’s said that the ‘to’ on the back of the pawn piece is a cursive form of ‘gold’.”
: Some shoji sets apparently replace the “to” character (と) with a different one (个) that’s more similar-looking to the kanji for “gold” (全).
: “If a knight crosses into enemy territory, for instance, they can promote - becoming as mobile as a gold general. A weak piece like a pawn can become gold if you get it to the enemy’s camp, hence ‘nouveau riche’.”
: Fun fact, this is how American football works. That’s why they cut to commercial after every touchdown, because the scoring player has to go get the “gold” kanji drawn on their back.
: “By the way, nouveau riche like to wear expensive clothes because of a desire to be acknowledged. Once humans fulfill the basic needs of clothing, food, and shelter, our next desire is recognition.”
: “That’s why people try to make themselves seem bigger by flaunting their power through money.”
: I mean, maybe. My next desire is something to keep me occupied from the lingering threat of boredom.
: Makoto’s confidant is now open. We will not be touching it this update - normally we would, but I need to buy Eligap some time.
: Instead, we’re going to do a confidant event with Kasumi.
: “Since our talk, I’ve been trying to think of things besides gymnastics that I’m really invested in… and I figured something out! It’s this!”
: “Yeah. I can cook! You really need to regulate your diet in gymnastics, so I’ve been making my own food a lot. And so! Since I also wanted to thank you, I made you bento!”
: “This is actually my first time cooking for someone else besides my family… but I figured this would definitely help me get my confidence back!”
: “I made this specifically with your body type in mind, and knowing how much you exercise… do you want it?”
: I’m just picturing Joker looking into the bag and going “Hey Morgana, does watching DVDs count as exercise?”
: “And it’s all yours! The chicken and eggs are to help you with fatigue. There are some beans in there, too, and it’s on brown rice.”
: “Weight control’s important for gymnasts, but we also need to make sure we’ve got energy and stamina too. So high-protein, low-fat is usually what we go for. We also need iron to maintain stamina, and vitamin B for energy.”
: “Wait… I’m getting all focused on the gymnastics part again… Well, anyway… let’s dig in!”
: “…Why do you look so skeptical, Kurusu-senpai? I guess it might look like a lot, but this is actually a little less than my usual. Don’t worry, I’ve done the math on the calories. I’ll burn all this off at practice.”
: “C’mon, Senpai! You’ll be done before you know it!”
: They keep re-using the whole “Girl who is laughably bad at cooking” thing and I don’t know why.
: “Kurusu-senpai? You okay? Your eyes are glazing over…”
: “You think so? I don’t think it’s that weird for an athlete. Heavy seasoning would probably be bad for you, so I went easy on it. Hmm. Was it too light? Excuse me…”
: No! Curry is overrated! That was the entire point of Disgaea 5… at least, I’m pretty sure it was because I’ve forgotten everything else about that game. It was pretty bad.
: “So I decided to go for maximum curry flavoring! U-um, sorry… were you not a fan of that flavor? Or, wait - maybe you prefer the super spicy ones!”
: “I’m so sorry! I did this all wrong… I’ll go get some kind of condiment to change the flavor! Once I fix it, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it more!”
: “Should I get mayonnaise? Soy sauce…? Maybe miso? Do you think Dr. Maruki will have some salt!?”
: “Oh, you’re right! I should just buy something new you can eat right now!”
: “Um, but… well, thank you! Now, we should really eat.”
: “Thank you for completely finishing your meal, Kurusu-senpai. I’m sorry it didn’t turn out perfectly… I came up with the idea of making bento, but I couldn’t decide on the flavor…”
: “Either way, I’m really sorry! I’m so embarrassed… I thought it was so great when I presented it to you, and now…”
: And that’s how Ni no Kuni 2 was born. Or YIIK.
: “Next time, I’ll ask you what you like before I try anything too crazy. I’ll go buy that super spicy ‘Megido-sauce’ for next time!”
: Megido Sauce, guaranteed to devil bust your tastebuds or your macca back.
: “Hee hee… it seems like you’re always helping me find my way forward, Senpai. If I didn’t have you, I’d let my failures get to me and end up in some big pessimistic spiral again.”
: “…Maybe this kind of confidence can help me figure out who I really am.”
: “Okay, now that we’ve gotten all our nutrients, it’s time for the next phase! I don’t mean to be too demanding, but I’m going to train you even harder than before! Make sure you keep up!”
: Joker immediately reaches for the air horn. He’s seen this before.
: When we get back, we get a notification that the next Caroline and Justine outing is open. We’re not doing that for another week or so.
: Hifumi Togo is this game’s best girl. She still doesn’t hold a candle to Elly or Yukiko.
: Unfortunately, we won’t be touching her confidant for some time. She is well worth doing even if you’re not going for 100% because you need her to fuse Lucifer.
: I mean, maybe in the real world, but in the SMT universe churches are for one thing and that’s devil busting the Messians before they can do the whole “Thousand Year Kingdom of God” nonsense.
: “Let’s ignore that idiot. Anyway, a shogi expert, huh? Striking an enemy with but a moment’s inspiration, skillfully strategizing toward victory…”
: “They said she’s at the church in Kanda, right? We should check it out when you have the time.”
: We have a couple of things to do tonight First, we can sell all this sooty armor, which is more than I remember picking up.
: The grab bag is available again, so I take one.
: The three Old Haori are upgrades for the male characters, so I go ahead and equip them. We’ll probably wind up buying new armor from Iwai anyway, but this will work when we go into Mementos next week.
: Sakai wants a Yakisoba Pan. We’ve been carrying one around for like three months. It’s probably still good.
: He gives us another Black Robe, which I might actually save for the late-game. I think there’s a few armor pieces near the end of the game that are better than the ones you can buy.
: Speaking of Iwai, let’s go sell all the vendor trash. That’ll bring us to 667,000 yen.
: Can you guess who the next target is going to be?
: This sounds like it was written by someone who has no idea how the internet works.
: If you hadn’t guessed by now, this spells it out. Anyway, we’re just going to call Kawakami, and…
: “That voice on the phone wasn’t Kawakami. Maybe you should ask for more details?”
: I’d just like to point out how little sense this scene makes. Joker is presumably calling the maid service’s number, and somehow reached the hospital from the maid service.
: “But thanks for coming all this way to visit me. Ugh, how could I collapse at a time like this? I really need to make some money… how am I going to make today’s payment…?”
: “You contacted the school…!?”
: Takase’s family would get a D- in Extortion 101.
: “I-I’m sorry…”
: “These are Takase-kun’s guardians, the ones I mentioned the other day. They took care of him…”
: Why do they keep using “the other day”? They could just have said “I told you about them” and it’d be enough.
: Seriously though I don’t understand how they supposedly did a once-over on the script between the base game and Royal and didn’t change some of this stuff.
: “He’s one of my students. He came to visit me…”
: “I’m sorry…”
: “Kurusu-kun…”
: I feel like Persona 5 takes place in some kind of bizarro world where extortion and blackmail are legal and everyone just kinda does it.
: “That’s not…”
: “…I understand. I will pay you… so…!”
: “I have to figure out a way to make more money… I guess transferring to our sister company is the only way…”
: This is one of the reasons I feel like the whole “there is a right answer to every choice” thing is kind of a bad idea.
: If you ask her about the sister company, the game spells it out for you: it’s prostitution even by Japanese legal standards.
: “Haha… I can’t believe I’m getting scolded by my student. Why…? Why are you so interested in helping me? I’m not worth it…”
: And then a doctor walks in and beckons Joker out of the room. “I’m sorry, son. The disease has progressed too far. We’re going to need to send her to Anime Containment.”
: “…Meow. …I’m so tired. All I really want is… a way to apologize to Takase-kun. So if his guardians demand money, then I just have to pay them…”
: “Sorry, I’m not quite back to a hundred percent yet, so my thoughts are all over the place.”
: “…I’m going to get some rest. I appreciate you coming to visit me today. …It made me really happy.”
: I remember the last time I was in a hospital - I was visiting someone, and right around this point I had the Ham Sandwich of Despair.
: The person I was visiting had wanted one, so I went down to this overpriced sandwich place in the lobby and got one, and when I brought it back up they told me they didn’t want it after all. They tell me to just eat it because they’re going to order dinner from the hospital.
: So there I am, in a hospital room, eating a ham sandwich. It doesn’t taste like anything, no matter how much mustard I put on it, because of the overpowering smell of the cleaning fluids the hospital uses. It is the Ham Sandwich of Despair.
: “…Visiting hours are over. Get home safe, okay…?”
: We start the 30th with Ann asking us to go to Mementos. We’re not doing that yet, because there’s still a few more requests we need to pick up - namely Kawakami’s.
: Instead, we’re going to to see our boyfriend.
: “It is on display as we speak. Would you like to come see it with me?”
: “Then let us head to the museum. To be honest, I have yet to actually go there myself. This should be quite lovely.”
: “Hm, I believe my piece truly stands out among the sea of art here. And yet, nobody has come to see it… perhaps they are so afraid of the truth held within that they dare not take a closer look.”
: Joker glares at the old people. No one hurts his boyfriend.
: “…There is no need to worry. I am not bothered in the slightest. That was nothing more than the drivel of unrefined commoners. I needn’t pay any attention to them.”
: “As long as those who are in the know understand my work, I will be happy.”
: “Look! A knowledgeable patron has arrived!”
: “I would like your opinion, sir… what are your thoughts on this piece?”
: If I was actually writing the More Like Yusu-Gay route, I’d probably have him say something like “You’ve clearly got something interesting to say here, but it’s like you’re afraid to really put yourself into it and say it.”
: Yusuke would have a thought here which would be something like, “Doesn’t he get it? I can’t! If I do that…”
: Then there’d be a flashback of Yusuke with Madarame, where Madarame has either realized himself that Yusuke is gay or Yusuke has told him directly.
: I’m not sure exactly how I’d write it, but it’d be something like Madarame telling him that he can’t be openly gay and an artist at the same time, “because that’s how this country is. Your pieces would never sell. People wouldn’t bother to look beyond you to your art.”
: The idea is that it’s something where he’s doing it to keep Yusuke under his thumb, but also has a grain of truth to it.
: “My work is… empty?”
: “…Indeed. But… why? I put my heart and soul into this piece, captured the very essence of desire… it was supposed to lay bare the reality of the world!”
: “Perhaps… perhaps he was right. It may be empty after all… these colors, these brush strokes… they do not convey the true meaning of desire, only my conception of it!”
: “I haven’t captured desire… desire has captured me! How could I have fooled myself into believing otherwise!?”
: “This grave mistake shall be the end for me!”
: “But, I… what is going to happen to me now? Without art, what will remain of my being!?”
: “Akira… you are correct. Surrendering myself to fate after only one failure would be very much unlike me. Still, being criticized by someone with such a keen eye is truly painful…”
: “But that is all the more reason I must break out of my slump. I must prove my ability to him…!”
: “I will start by painting. After that, I shall paint, beyond which I shall paint even more. That is the only way I will learn to capture the essence of emotion.”
: “After all, you can only accomplish so much in using logic to analyze the contents of the heart. …I hope you allow me to continue my skill card services as well, Akira. I shall conquer this!”
: “Now then, let us head home. I wish to start anew.”
: “That one gentleman’s critique made me fully realize what I’ve been lacking. Now my path is clear! I will simply keep on drawing. I’m going to have ten pieces finished up by end of today!”
: That last part isn’t a typo on my end, that’s exactly how it is in the screenshot. They forgot a “the”.
: “Hah! If anything, I should be doing more. I’ll do anything to escape this slump! With your support, I was able to pick myself up rather quickly today.”
: “I hope this doesn’t discourage you from joining me again. I will get past this. Sorry for taking up so much of your time. We’ll meet again soon.”
: It’s here I figure out how the touch pad confidant tracker thing works.
: All the tracker does is steer you toward a “recommended” confidant each day. Neither the reload-heavy 100% route nor the one I’m using do this one tonight.
: There’s also a crossword tonight.
: Tonight, we’ll be starting what’s either the most or the second-most important confidant in the game.
: “You can begin by telling me your name.”
: “Ah, Akira Kurusu-san. I see. Your name is quite lucky. That aside, what type of consultation can I interest you in today?”
: “Well, um… I use tarot cards to foretell the future.”
: As it so happens, I actually have a complete deck of tarot cards with the Persona 4/Golden faces on them, but I have no idea how you’re supposed to use them.
: “Now then, let’s start with an initial reading to test the waters of your fate. O divine power… bring forth this boy’s fortune!”
: “I see. There seems to be new wealth in your future. Your financial fortune is looking good today. This wealth of which I speak will come… from your house.”
: “Head home without detour, and precisely five thousand yen will await you there!”
: If someone wants to explain to me how it is you’re supposed to do… whatever it is she’s doing… I’ll do it with the P4 cards and post it in the thread. We’re going to be coming back here a lot.
: Anyway, this is a preview of Chihaya’s first ability: the money reading. Money readings cost 5000 yen and get you twice the money if you end a battle with an All-Out.
: This is one of the reasons that the Greatest Weapon in the Phantom Thieves Arsenal is a better technique than confusion farming - you can go directly to an All-Out from the negotiation screen and double any money gained that way.
: “As you should. Fate is absolute! But… what is this? How strange. Kurusu-san, the general flow of your future seems to indicate… ruin…? And an inmate, locked away in a lonely cell…”
: “You seem to be a good person, Kurusu-san… but are you perhaps mixed up with the wrong crowd? Beyond that… my…”
: This is foreshadowing to something we could have seen, but haven’t. It’s a reference to the game over cutscene that happens if you ignore the time limit for a Palace.
: Let’s just pretend I went and actually sat through several hours of going to sleep in a loop until I ran out the timer on Kaneshiro’s dungeon.
: I took these from a video on YouTube. They’re from the base game, which is why the font is different. I kind of wish they hadn’t changed it, because I started using it for the update banners and didn’t know they had changed it when I started making them.
: This cutscene is actually a gigantic plot hole for several reasons. I’ll give you the first one: this cutscene takes place in November. By this point, Joker should know who the person with the gun is.
: “I cannot offer advice to that end… Hm. If the divination is coming to me this clearly, the truth of it is simply undeniable.”
: “Now that I think about it, there may be way you can attempt to counteract your destiny.”
: Bring a Persona that’s immune to gun damage and then light the gunman on fire?
: Remember how I said we need 100,000 yen to unlock Chihaya? This is why.
: “I typically only recommend this to my more experienced customers, but your situation is too dire to ignore. You see, the stone itself is imbued with an aura of joy that will sap away all the horrible energy surrounding you.”
: Wasn’t this a Yakuza substory? I think it was.
: “All you need to do is keep it wrapped in cloth and be sure to recharge its power in moonlight every three days.”
: The worst part is that we have to take a second day to buy the crystal. We’re going to buy it anyway, but now we need to spend two time slots on it even though we already have enough money.
: “I-It’s legitimate, I promise! So… you really don’t want it? What a shame it will be to see the flames of youth snuffed out so soon…”
: “Well, come see me again if you change your mind. I really can help you, if you’d like.”
: “The chief seems strangely happy. I wonder what’s going on.”
: “Hey Akira, how’s your pocket money situation been looking?”
: I mean, we’re only carrying around $6,200 in cash.
: “Hahaha, you’re hopeless!”
: “What? Is this… five thousand yen!?”
: “I won some money from the lotto, so I don’t mind sharing my winnings.”
: There’s a lotto stand in Shibuya we could use, but I never did in the base game.
: “Don’t worry about the details. Or what, is that five thousand yen not enough for you? Anyway, make sure you close up the shop like always.”
: “Hey, so… does this mean that fortune teller was right?”
: “She even got the amount spot on! Maybe that Chihaya lady can seriously read into the future! Wait… this is bad! Didn’t she say you’re gonna die!?”
: “Come on, we need to go talk to her again and figure out what to do! …And maybe I can have her read my compatibility fortune with-”
: It’s zero percent.
: He’s finally learning to fear the hose.
: Next time, we’re going to start Makoto’s confidant, find out Kawakami’s secret, pay 100,000 yen for a magic crystal, and most importantly see the first part of the Gay Yusuke Route. I might even write something for it. Maybe.
: Eligap already has the next part mostly done, so this should be the only time I’ll need to stall for that.
The fact that all the pieces look the same makes it pretty opaque. Go is easier to learn, and also probably harder to play.
One day a girl will be bad at cooking and like meat in the same scene. This will cause a double event and the entire MegaTen universe will dissolve.
Churches are for coffee and donuts and seniors playing bingo, I’m pretty sure. Maybe they do other things in churches in Japan.
Is it just me or are they really trying hard and laying it on thick with Kasumi?
Yeah that’ll probably happen in Persona 6 when they realize they’ve run out of anime archetypes and have to start combining them.
Yeah, it’s not just you. I think part of it is that they really need you to be invested in Kasumi’s storyline for the parts they added for Royal, and part of it is that they really did not want to have another Marie on their hands. I think there’s also an element of “we need an age-appropriate romance option for Joker that people will actually want” because of how popular Tae and Kawakami are.
The best part is that it’s all wasted effort because she’s not in Scramble.
Anyway, I mentioned in the last update a thing about Valentine’s Day and White Day. That’s because I never actually saw how Valentine’s Day worked in the base game: it happened I think after the final boss but before the final cutscene and by that point I just turned the game off.
As it turns out, we can and will see all of the Valentine’s Day dates… though it’ll be a bit of a pain to do so. The same will happen for White Day. I’ll explain how that works when we hit 07/08 and hit Rank 9 with Kawakami.
: It’s 7/1, and after something like two months we’re finally finishing The Gallant Rogue.
: We get a glorified tutorial informing us that the diner now has a drink that boosts Charm. I don’t believe we’re ever going to order it, even though it brings back memories of the Persona 3 MC drinking dozens of cups of Pheromone Coffee to boost his charm.
: By water, he means the squirt gun he’s about to blast Morgana with.
: “A variety of heroes battling for dominance - truly an epic time. Charismatic rulers and warlords with the command of a thousand men may have their own appeal…”
: “…But personally, I think that the strategists who support them can’t be ignored. Now then, Kurusu-kun. In the book, Zhuge Liang of Shu is famous for his exploits during the Battle of Red Cliffs…”
: This is one of those things they put in just for Dynasty Warriors fans, isn’t it?
: “He’s also the inventor of the baozi, a kind of round dumpling. But their original name was based on their appearance. What’s the meaning of the original Chinese phrase that these dumplings’ name came from?”
: Baozi are white dumplings that originated in China but have since migrated to a number of different areas - including the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. There’s even a Uyghur-specific one.
: They have a number of fillings, but most of them involve pork. The Uyghurs apparently have one that’s cooked in tandoor and filled with lamb… if they offered me that in chicken I’d probably eat it.
: There’s also apparently dessert ones with custard or adzuki bean paste inside, which I’d also eat.
: “That is correct. Its original name, mantou, came from a phrase meaning ‘a barbarian’s head.’”
: “At the time, one region’s barbarians would use a person’s head as an offering to soothe the deity of a flooding river. But Zhuge Liang made a baozi in the shape of a head as a substitute.”
: They called it “the sacred swirly”.
: “These days, you can find baozi with cute faces on them. If you think about their origin, it’s not too far off the mark.”
: Now, if they had one with steak in it, I’d be all over that… even though that’s basically an empanada. The taco place near my house that used to have those closed down and I hate it.
: “I never knew strategists came up with cooking, and not just strategies… Makoto’s our strategist. Wanna see what she can cook up?”
: Right after school, we drop off The Gallant Rogue and pick up Speed Reader.
: We then make a stop at the bookstore in Shibuya and buy everything that’s on sale.
: Near the train station in Shibuya, there’s a lottery stand. You can actually do daily or weekly draws here (using the different windows) but the middle window sells Summer Mammoth tickets.
: As far as I understand it, the Mammoth tickets always win, so there’s no reason not to buy one.
: Today, we’re going to start Makoto’s confidant. You need Knowledge at Rank 3 in order to do that. Makoto is one of the five confidants that requires a max-rank social stat to finish.
: We already know about two of the others: Sojiro (who needs maxed Kindness) and Iwai (who needs maxed Guts).
: “Up until now, I’ve been the quintessential honor student. I believe I’ve been handling my position as student council president with ease as well.”
: “A-and I don’t mean that in a boasting way, that’s simply how I’ve thought about it. …But in the end, I was unable to make any kind of impact with either Suzui-san or Kaneshiro.”
: “Turns out there’s no use for a rule-abiding honor student when things get tough. Now that I’m a member of this team, I want to do everything I can to help you all.”
: Oh, that’s right! Speaking of students, I had someone contact me on Twitter to explain that I was actually right about the word “Shujin” meaning “Prisoner”. It’s apparently one of those things where there’s multiple ways to spell the word.
: According to them, it’s a painfully obvious pun that gets harped on a lot in the Japanese script.
: I’m honestly kind of glad I didn’t understand that when I played the base game. There was this period at the start of the base game, before I understood how bad the writing is, where I actually thought the writing was okay, and that kind of thing would’ve ruined it for me had I understood it.
: “I think… I-I will need to broaden my horizons somewhat.”
: “My first step will be to learn more about the other students. But… I struggle with that. There seems to be a disparity between my tastes and those of my peers…”
: “I knew it… I don’t even know where people like to go for fun… it would be nice to have a grasp of such concepts. Plus, the student council must be responsible for understanding the student body they serve, right?”
: “I-I don’t mean that in a surveillance way, I just want to know them as people. I may be a phantom thief, but that’s no excuse for me to start ignoring my presidential duties.”
: “Now, back to the topic at hand… where do people usually go for fun?”
: For some reason, this entire scene feels like it’s the writers trying to understand Kids These Days ™.
: “I enjoy the movies myself, sometimes. I think I’d prefer somewhere I’m unfamiliar with… oh, I know! How about the arcade? I’ve never actually been to one.”
: “Do you think you could take me? I’m not sure if it will broaden my horizons per se, but simply studying won’t get me anywhere.”
: How much do you want to bet that this is one of the writers trying to live out their dumbass teenage romance fantasies?
: “Thank goodness… I think I would have been totally lost in there had I gone by myself. Well, let’s get going.”
: “There are more girls here than I expected. Hey, over there… you play by aiming the gun at the screen, right? That actually seems somewhat realistic.”
: We’ll learn all about that game in a different confidant that we can’t do yet. I’m not even joking when I say there is an entire confidant about that game.
: “I-if it’s okay with you… do you think you could teach me?”
: This is incredibly painful to read. It’s incredibly reminiscent of Ready Player One and all the cringy excerpts from it that got posted when the movie got announced.
: I mean, it’s not quite as bad because if this was the RPO author Joker would start making out with Makoto right there as every single person in the arcade lines up to high-five him because he’s so awesome, and then he’d say something like “This is just like the time I got the high score in Pac-Man”.
: They could’ve, you know, put some actual visuals in here of Makoto playing the game, but instead they’re making masterful use of the Allanson “tell, don’t show” technique.
: Somehow, I knew people would want me to pick this last one.
: “Of course that was just a game, but… I wonder if I could apply some of the techniques I learned here during battle.”
: The thing is, there is a sizeable portion of the P5 fanbase who is very into Makoto. Somehow, I have a feeling they’re part of the same group that bothered to watch Ready Player One.
: It’s also too bad there’s no way to LP a book because I would dunk on that shit if I could.
: “Perhaps going somewhere I don’t normally frequent is what helped me come up with that idea. You know, it may only be a little bit… but I think I’m starting to understand how people pass time.”
: “Interesting. I would’ve never even thought about coming here before.”
: “I… Hey, do you think you could help me out again later? I might be able to give the team more ideas if I can gain increased knowledge outside of my studies.”
: “Thank you. Perhaps it won’t be immediately… but I’m sure I can be of use.”
: What’s really stupid is that it’s entirely possible that Joker is Makoto’s boyfriend when this cutscene happens.
: This ability is more about seeing enemy skills than it is about item drops - there’s no steal mechanic in this game the way there is in Final Fantasy.
: “I’d like to go there as well. No! N-Not for my own purposes… to tell you the truth, I recently got a report that one of our students was spotted there… I’m skeptical, but… I’d like to confirm firsthand for myself.”
: We haven’t been doing his confidant, but Mishima is now located in Shinjuku at night. Because of course he is.
: “Well, it’s getting late. Let’s head home.”
: “It’s always hard for me to come to places like this on my own, so you’ve been a big help. I’ve had all kinds of new experiences today… and it’s even been a little fun.”
: “Yeah, thanks. I feel a lot better with you helping me through this.”
: “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to keep you. Careful on your way home. I’ll call you later.”
: Tonight’s a special night in that it’s one of the few nights where there’s a follow-up with a Persona 4 character on TV.
: This is another way that we know Persona 5 takes place in 2016. Rise actually just turned 21 - her birthday is June 1st, 1995.
: Tonight’s another Kawakami night.
: Joker’s like “Oh my god, I cured horny!”
: “…My boss found me a part-time job that pays better than this one.”
: “Takase-kun’s guardians keep increasing their demands… so this is just what I have to do.”
: “What I want…? Takase-kun’s guardians say the only true way to apologize to Takase-kun is by paying them. If that’s not true, then what’s the right thing to do here…?”
: “I wonder if I can escape all this if I quit being a teacher. People like me have no right being a teacher. If I quit on my own, I won’t have to pay them…”
: “That’s why I’m going to quit both my teaching job and my maid job… what do you think?”
: What he’s thinking is “I wonder if the whole maid outfit thing is part of the cure for horny. Does she get an employee discount on those? I’m gonna need a few. Do they make them small enough to fit a cat?”
: “That’s what I decided… but did I really decide it on my own…? Now that I think about it, it’s too late for me to stop being a teacher. If I really felt bad for what happened, I would’ve resigned the day he died.”
: “And yet, I still felt the need to teach… I wonder why I feel that way even now.”
: Basically, Kawakami is slowly warping into Ms. Saeko.
: “…Kurusu-kun. Oh, that’s right… I decided the way to apologize to him was to make sure there won’t ever be another student like him.”
: “Because I might’ve been able to save him if I hadn’t been afraid of rumors or labels back then. I wanted to become a teacher who takes care of her students. That’s the mindset I had!”
: “But now, I spend all my free time at part-time jobs, just so I can continue working as a teacher. I put the critical work of a teacher on the back burner, so I could make ‘apology’ money.”
: “That’s where it all went wrong… I can’t make things right with Takase-kun like this…”
: I mean, unless we’re talking anime. Anime’s one of those mistakes that I don’t think you can fix.
: “I’ll be the teacher I aspire to be… that’s the right way for me to make amends to Takase-kun. From here on, I refuse to pay them any more money!”
: “And that is my answer! …Well, what do you think?”
: “You can’t get the right answer from someone else. It can only be found from within. …I learned that from you. In a way, you’re MY teacher. …Haha, just kidding.”
: On our next visit (on 7/8) we’ll be hitting Rank 9 with Kawakami, which opens up the option to date her. Naturally, I’ll be showing off both versions of her Rank 9 and Rank 10 cutscene.
: There’s something I want to explain about dating in this game. I’ll talk about that when we get to the phone call.
: “Especially to you. I averted my eyes from you because you were labeled, just like Takase-kun was… but from now on, I’m going to protect you to. As your teacher, I will never betray you.”
: “Leave it to me! I can be decisive when it counts! I’ll speak with the Takases. I’m not going to run anymore. Everything should be fine as long as I talk to them face to face.”
: “All right, it’s time for me to go. Thank you. See you later.”
: Okay, so about the dating thing. Earlier in the LP, I had mentioned the possibility of having a vote to determine who “Straight Joker” winds up dating. As it turns out, that’s unnecessary.
: The reason is that there’s actually no penalty whatsoever for dating multiple people at once, just like in real life. This is how we’re going to be able to see all the Valentine’s/White Day cutscenes.
: While the canon route is that Joker is gay and dating Yusuke, behind the scenes I’m actually going to be dating everyone at once in what I call the “Reverse Lisa Silverman” technique.
: “Oh, wait… I was supposed to stop working as Becky by today.”
: I like to think that one of the writers was reviewing the script and just goes “Uh, boss? All the phone calls with Kawakami kind of make no sense.” and the boss going “Fuck it, just go with it.”
: “…To be honest, I always kind of knew in my heart I couldn’t go on like this forever. But I felt so stuck facing it alone. It’s thanks to you that I actually figured out what I need to do.”
: “Come on… you realize you can’t feed me lines like that anymore. …But I haven’t given you any proper appreciation yet, so… thank you, really.”
: We get some free time, so let’s read a book.
: Yes. From what I remember, this reduces all but a handful of books to one reading session, meaning we can now optimize stat gains from any day where we get a seat on the train.
: “I told them… that I’m not going to pay them any more money! I’m quitting my part-time job too! Although I’m still in talks with my boss about it.”
: “I’m going to devote myself to being a great teacher! No matter what others say, I won’t waver. So, thank you for giving me such good advice. I just thought you should be the first to know…”
: “It’s what I decided, for Takase-kun’s sake. I’m going to make sure there won’t be any more students like him, who…”
: “I’m not going to run or hide! I’m going to spend my time taking care of my students.”
: I wish the writers had come up with slightly less… I dunno, stupid situations for their characters to be in.
: Like, hear me out here. What if the case was that Takase killed himself and the guardians blame Kawakami for it, even though she reported it?
: The guardians spread this rumor about Kawakami being a “death teacher” who drove a kid to suicide, and the only place she could find a job is Shujin due to the principal being evil. He pays her a rock-bottom salary knowing she’ll never be able to find another teaching job.
: Kawakami can’t sue them because she has no money and has no way of proving that the guardians are behind the rumor, and she has to take the maid job just to survive because it’s about the only place that’ll hire her outside of Shujin.
: Oh look, I’ve just written a somewhat more believable scenario that keeps the same story elements but doesn’t make Kawakami look like a complete idiot.
: “I’ve decided that that’s the best apology I can make to Takase-kun. Paying money to you two is not the solution, to say the least!”
: I’m pretty sure the use of the term “sex worker” here exists only because the English language doesn’t really have a way to describe what Kawakami does. I explained this in a post a while back.
: I think it would’ve been more responsible to just have him say “About your little stint in fuzoku” and then explain what that term means for the people not playing in Japanese.
: “Stop… please.”
: “Haha… I guess I can’t quit my part-time job just yet.”
: “I know! But what am I supposed to do…? … What about the Phantom Thieves…? Would they even help someone like me? No, that’s impossible. Haha…”
: “I can’t do this anymore…”
: “Haha, I could never forget them. I send them money every week… wait, why? You don’t intend on doing something, do you?”
: “Please don’t. A Shujin teacher asking the Phantom Thieves for help would be… I’m sorry. I was so excited to tell you what I had decided… and then it ended up like this… just forget everything, okay?”
: “…I guess I’ll never be able to change. Y-yeah, haha… Class is about to start… I need to go.”
: And now we’ve got all but one of the Mementos requests we need to go back in there. The last one is Chihaya’s.
: We then trade in Speed Reading for Zorro, the Outlaw.
: “I am in your debt. It would be rather difficult to go by myself. Now then, our destination is Inokashira Park. Let us go.”
: Right after I finish this update, I’m going to post the first Gay Yusuke Route update, which takes place at the same time and in the same place as this event. It will attempt to show this event from Yusuke’s perspective.
: Joker is, of course, doing this just to see what Yusuke’s reaction is. His boyfriend is already in the boat with him, after all.
: “I have missed the opportunity for a truly wonderful subject… that aside, I must thank you for your help today. This is the ideal location for my next motif.”
: “Perfect… this is it. My previous painting captured only one aspect of the heart: desire. As such, I was unable to arrive at a truly authentic representation…”
: “That is why we have come today. I shall paint a second aspect… the burning passion between man and woman! Fittingly, our theme today will be… the wonders of love!”
: “You too will have an important role here. While I draw, ensure the boat remains as steady as possible amid these devilish ripples.”
: “They are akin to Adam and Eve… yet in time all lovers must come to know the pain of separation… separation is the natural end to any such relationship… but even beyond that, love endures.”
: “Precisely… this is the truth of the human heart! It will make the most wonderful painting! It shall be adored by all who gaze upon it! It may even be given top prize in the next exhibition!”
: “Wait, now is not the time to be thinking of such trivial matters!”
: “I must capture your profile!”
: “Rejoice, for I shall preserve your beautiful love so that all coming generations may bask in its glory. Once I complete this painting, you will become new legends in the art world… a modern Adam and Eve!”
: “A man and a woman intimately swaying in a dinghy of dreams… the blush of their cheeks, the bashful looks… yes, this is the love I was so emphatically searching for!”
: “Familial…? So that overflowing passion was just a figment of my imagination? It seems my bias has caused me to overlook the truth of the matter…”
: “Love is a broad, multi-faceted beast… this only serves to prove how narrow my perspective can be. Hm, romantic love and familial love… the two may be nigh indiscernible depending on one’s point of view.”
: “Perhaps… the truth of the heart lies in the eye of the beholder. Akira, I feel as though I’ve learned something today!”
: Oh wow! We’ll have to check the Cutscene Viewer as soon as this update is over.
: Joker just looks at them and nods. They’re SO CLOSE to getting it.
: This cutscene is so close to being the start of a gay romance route as-is that I have to wonder if they had planned one and scrapped it.
: Just recently, there was a group who delved through the code for Persona 4 Golden and found out there was supposed to be a gay route with Yosuke, which was cut before release but I believe had the script still in the game.
: “What are you talking about? Ah well… come, it is about time we return home. Please row us back to shore, Akira.”
: “It would seem I understand nothing of love after all. Though I’ve progressed by one step, there is no doubt I will face many difficulties moving forward.”
: “When will I fully understand the heart? Even if I ever do understand it, will I truly be able to draw it…?”
: “You’re right. I’ve no intention whatsoever of giving up. I will do everything in my power to get past this. Anyhow, today was a significant use of time. Impressive oarsmanship from your end, as well.”
: Tonight, we have to buy the stone that we could’ve bought last time, but the game wouldn’t let us.
: “I remember you… you had a very abnormal destiny, as I recall. Please, take a seat.”
: “For that much, it’d better not only change your fate, but also give you incredible luck. If you do end up buying one, we should go home and test it out.”
: Translation: Buying the stone takes time because Chihaya’s confidant is not exactly the best from a design perspective.
: The Holy Stone is an accessory, and I forget what it does. We have no reason to equip it. Also, that’s 100,000 yen down the drain.
: “It’s the smart thing to do, considering this is the only way to avoid misfortune. It’s already charged with a happiness aura, so you’ll feel the effects right away. Don’t forget to recharge it with moonlight every three days.”
: Gotta activate those almonds every three days now.
: “Please stop by again and let me know how your fate changed. Goodbye…”
: “I was just about to close up shop, but I forgot to turn the stove off. I guess you start forgetting things more the older you get…”
: “Last time we went to that fortune teller, the chief won the lottery… I wonder what kind of luck we’ll have this time around.”
: We just wasted a hundred thousand yen on a broken magic stone. You have no idea how mad I was when I played the base game and got to this part, because money in the base game was much harder to come by.
: “Hey, do you mind looking over the shop while I-”
: “Th-The stone shattered!”
: Clearly, this is Morgana’s fault for overcharging the crystal with his thirst for human women.
: “What’s gotten into you?”
: “Huh? This tastes… salty! Hey, the Holy Stone is just salt!”
: “…Akira? What’s going on?”
: “You’re salty? That reminds me, I was just about to head out and grab some salt for the shop. I’ll be back in a bit.”
: “Hm… I think this is technically rock salt. I’ve seen the chief grinding some up before. Wait, in that case… maybe the Holy Stone is supposed to help you get better at cooking!”
: I had one of those salt lamps before - not because I thought it had any health benefits but just because. Turns out, those melt all over the goddamn place when it gets humid out.
: Ruined the shelf I had it on, which was just a cheap collapsible bookshelf I didn’t pay anything for. That salt does NOT come off once it sticks to something.
: Look Morgana, you broke it with your goddamn horny and now you’ve got to replace it.
: “B-But, um… maybe if your cooking improves, your fate will change just like she said it would… … I guess it really doesn’t make any sense, huh…”
: “So, that Holy Stone was really just a phony in the end! That fortune teller’s name was Chihaya, right? She clearly has some kind of mystical power… but this is just unacceptable.”
: “…We need to go complain to her!”
: We get an invitation from Ryuji to go to Ichigaya, which I don’t believe we’d get if we were on the reload-heavy 100% route because we’d already be done with Ryuji’s confidant.
: Even on the route I’m using, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to do it, because we don’t really need the confidant points.
: I’ve seen one of these before on Game Center CX - I forget which episode it is, but there’s one where Arino goes to a fishing pond like this.
: It’s a bit too artificial for my taste - the ponds are totally man-made and the fish are stocked.
: “…Hey, doesn’t meetin’ in a place like this look like we’re talkin’ some shady business? I like it.”
: “Like, ‘we’re regular high school students durin’ the day. But at night…’ you know what I mean!? Man, this is gettin’ me pumped up!”
: “…Oh crap, she’s comin’ this way.”
: “Why are you sitting around like old men? Why don’t you go out and do something more exciting?”
: “Wha- Look who’s talkin’!”
: sigh “Adults need time to themselves to unwind and clear their thoughts. You’ll understand soon enough, when you start working in the real world.”
: “Wow… soundin’ real old there, Kawakami.”
: “That’s MS. Kawakami to you!”
: Seriously, you’d think that Atlus would tone down the whole honorific thing given that they knew they were going to exporting the game and that these lines wouldn’t translate well.
: I just realized that Kawakami is wearing a jacket in the middle of July. It’s not like this scene can happen in the winter - this is the one day it’s scripted to occur.
: I have to wonder when Smash Ultimate takes place in the Persona 5 timeline, because I’m just picturing Joker and Ryuji giving each other a thousand-yard stare and reminding each other of their shared secret - they both know Donkey Kong is real but can never tell anyone.
: Joker once asked Donkey Kong if Lanky Kong was real, and DK’s only response was “It’s better if you don’t know,” communicated entirely through a mashup of the DK Rap.
: “I see. So when you get jaded like Kawakami, you’ll just naturally attract fish… uhh, I don’t think that’s right.”
: “It’s a nice, sunny Sunday. I didn’t think I’d be stuck fishing with you two on my day off. sigh Two troublemakers, and their no-good teacher… I guess we’re perfect for each other.”
: “She keeps on gettin’ fish even as she nags… I’m impressed!”
: None of these points matter. Kawakami will automatically reach Rank 9 once we complete the Mementos request, and from there will automatically reach Rank 10 without any input from us.
: And I bet you thought I forgot to grip and sip. We had to wait until the night period because we had to accept Ryuji’s invitation last night.
: Some sip to remember, some sip to forget the time they were leaving Final Destination and overheard Diddy Kong asking Donkey Kong if Lanky was actually dead, to which DK replied “We checked the grave but it was empty”, again using a mashup of the DK Rap.
: “I, Toranosuke Yoshida, will someday find a way to address your concerns in Nagata-cho… oh, Kurusu-kun. How’s your schoolwork?”
: “By the way, what’s your opinion about our current government? I feel that they’re wrong, so I plan on addressing that during my speech.”
: “I’d like you to listen to it, so you can give me your honest opinion.”
: “However, the current administration refuses to discuss their plans for the future… can we really accept such an utter lack of transparency?”
: The game doesn’t say it outright yet, but Shido is the bald Hideki Kamiya-looking guy who showed up in Joker’s flashbacks and again on the TV in the SIU Director’s office.
: “So he’s claiming those who have made mistakes in the past shouldn’t get a second chance? What can I say to that?”
: “…Yes, I am ‘No-Good Tora’ and I have made mistakes. Yes, I am unpopular and powerless. But that has nothing to do with my arguments! These are things I learned from all my hardships.”
: “You can ridicule me all you want, but I will continue to oppose what is wrong with this world!”
: “The highlight, though, was your yelling.”
: “That’s very promising. But don’t overdo it. You should avoid making enemies whenever possible. …Okay, that is all for today.”
: This guy turning completely around after one speech is giving me flashbacks to Ni no Kuni 2.
: “Please wait! Thank you! …That is all I wanted to say.”
: “I learned something from your dauntless spirit today. I have a bad habit of getting flustered whenever someone calls me No-Good Tora.”
: We know. You’ve said so already.
: “But you see me as someone of value, so I refuse to cower to criticism in front of you. Today you taught me that I must have more confidence in my arguments.”
: No new abilities this rank, but that’s fine - we already have the best abilities Yoshida can give us. The rest are all very situational or only good if you’re not grinding at all.
: “My way of thinking changes when I’m with you. Perhaps it’s the influence of your youthful spirit. Ah, my apologies. It seems we’re out of time.”
: “Thanks to you, I’ve remembered something very important. Now that I think about it, ever since the scandal… I’ve felt alone and helpless. Like the whole world was against me.”
: “Perhaps I got too used to the constant judging and critique, but… I realized I’d overlooked something crucial. I’d forgotten the people who support me… and how encouraging it feels simply to be in their presence.”
: “Perhaps it seems too obvious, or too trite, but… I hope you remember to cherish that, too.”
: “Good. I’m glad to hear it. I will engrave it into my heart. I can’t let myself forget it again. Well, I’ll be counting on you for my next speech, too. See you soon, Kurusu-kun.”
: Next time, we’ll see ANOTHER More Like Yusu-Gay scene, get Chihaya’s Mementos request, and then go into Mementos in as painless a way as possible. Right after this update, I’ll be working on the first More Like Yusu-Gay.
: Welcome to the first More Like Yusu-Gay cutscene. I apologize in advance.
: Wonderful. With his assistance, I’ll surely overcome this slump!
: “It’s so… peaceful here. I should bring a girl here sometime.”
What!? That’s impossible! He hasn’t shown any interest in Takamaki or Makoto…
“Girl…? Does that mean you have a girlfriend!? You should have mentioned sooner!”
: “As if. For such a big city, there’s no girls here that interest me. I mean, Makoto? Come on, she’d make me file a form just to ask her to dinner.”
: “That doesn’t seem to have stopped Morgana. Have you told him about Takamaki-san and Suzui-san yet?”
: “He wouldn’t listen if I told him. He’s still convinced he’s going to sweep her right off her feet.”
: “That aside, I must thank you for your help today. This is the ideal location for my next motif.”
: “Perfect… this is it.”
: Perfect for someone else, maybe. They look like they’re falling asleep.
: “?”
: “My previous painting captured only one aspect of the heart: desire. As such, I was unable to arrive at a truly authentic representation…”
: “That’s why we have come today. I shall paint a second aspect… the burning passion between two lovers!”
: If I can find any, that is…
: “Fittingly, our theme today will be… the wonders of love!”
: You know, when we saw this cutscene from Joker’s perspective, we never saw what it was that Yusuke was drawing. I wonder if this alternate cutscene will clear that up?
: Oh… maybe he did find love after all, just not where he thought he would.
: This whole time, I’ve always felt… different… around him. Like I could be myself. And now, I think I understand what that is.
: I think I’m in love.
: Anyway, the rest of the cutscene is very similar to the base one: Joker starts turning a bit and Yusuke calls out, attracting the attention of the people in the other boat.
: There’s an animation here I couldn’t capture properly where Joker reaches out for just a second and puts his hand on top of Yusuke’s.
: He still denies it at the end though.
